REPTILES OF ALL LANDS 
619 
MONITOR (Varanus gouldi) : AUSTRALIA 
Among the monitors are the largest known lizards. 
“The monitors are strictly « carnivorous, fierce and active (see page 613). 
feet long. 
Raymond L. Ditmars. 
of Iceland. Serpents range in size from 
the burrowing species of five inches and 
a body not thicker than a goose-quill to 
the great pythons, which attain a length 
of 30 feet and a weight of 300 pounds. 
A great proportion of the snakes have 
become highly specialized. It is among 
these so-called lowly creatures that we 
find the most extrao«dinary and deadly 
weapons for the purpose of killing the 
prey that are possessed by any of the 
vertebrates. 
Popular interest is always strong re- 
garding serpents of great size. All of 
the very large serpents are members of 
a single family, the Boide. None is 
poisonous, and the members of this 
family kill their prey by constriction— 
Squeezing it to death. In the New 
World the great constrictors are called 
boas; they are generally known as py- 
thons in the Old World. There is little 
structural difference between a boa and 
a python. One of the characteristics 
An Indian species grows to be eight 
Photo by 
about the members of the Boide@ is the 
protrusion of a pair of internal hind 
limbs in the shape of stout spurs at the 
vent. This condition shows the immedi- 
ate relationship between the serpents and 
the lizards. 
The largest known serpent occurs in 
the Malay Peninsula, Java, Borneo, and 
Sumatra. This is the regal or reticu- 
lated python. It attains a length of 30 
feet. -\Second “in size is the Indian 
python, inhabiting the Indian Peninsula, 
Indo-China, the Malay Peninsula, and 
Java. This constrictor grows to be 25 
feet long and is very abundant. The 
South «American® anaconda~is a close 
third, and the African python ranks 
fourth in size. The latter snake appears 
to attain a max‘mum length of 18 feet. 
The dimensions given of these giant ser- 
pents are considerably in excess of the 
average (see pages 630 and 632) 
Few regal pythons over 22 feet long 
are nowadays brought out of Malaysia. 
