1907.] ON SERPENTS IX CAPTIVITY. 789 



d. Presented in Sept. 1890. Although not so active and eager 

 as the last, this Python usually took one rabbit a week, from 

 June to September. A kid offered to him on one occasion was 

 rejected ; but a rabbit was instantly seized. 



e. This specimen, presented in 1894 and kept in the same cage 

 as the last, was in poor condition at the beginning of the summer 

 and was a bad feeder all the season, only now and again taking 

 rabbits after they had been left some little time in the cage. 

 The second time of feeding, he swallowed two rabbits within a few 

 minutes of each other. For five days he lay as if dead, and then 

 disgorged them, the swelling caused by the two rabbits showing 

 no signs of lessening during that period. 



Diamond Python {Python spilotes). 



(Australia.) 



Although no experiments were made upon a representative of 

 this species, it is worth recording that an example deposited for 

 a short time in the Gardens early in the year had been trained, 

 we were told, to take dead rats from its owner's hand. 



Common Boa {Boa constrictor). 



(S. America.) 



A specimen about six feet long, deposited during the month of 

 August, took rats with avidity, swallowing five one after the 

 other at the first trial. This snake had previously been fed upon 

 living rats, as was ascertained from its owner, who, influenced 

 by the popular belief, had never considered it worth while to 

 offer it dead animals. 



Anaconda {Eunectes miorinus). 



Para. 



Presented in Aug. 1902. This snake began to feed at the end 

 of June and continued to take ducks at irregular intervals until 

 the end of August, being very uncertain in his appetite. He 

 always fed in the water. Sometimes he required a good deal of 

 persuasion in the way of moving the duck at the surface. At 

 other times he would seize it from the keeper's hand the moment 

 it appeared over the edge of the tank. 



Cooke's Tree- Boa {Coralltcs cookii). 



(Tropical America.) 



Some newly imported specimens, deposited in the Gardens in 

 the summer in very poor condition, would not take the food, and 

 died after a few weeks without showing any signs at any time of 

 recovej'ing health. 



