196 THE HABITS OF MALAY REPTILES. 
these have been found in Singapore. A number have only been 
collected once or twice, and some of the records may be consi- 
dered doubtful, but as only a small part of the peninsula has been 
yet collected in, we may expect large additions as time goes on 
th i 
One of 
Ular Sawah of the Malays. 1% is perhaps the largest snake in 
п 
as obtained by a scientific expedition in Manila. Pythons of 20 
feet in length are by no means uncommon here, and specimens 
of 26 feet are occasionally met with, but accurate measurements 
of larger ones are still required. The python is nocturnal in its 
ens іп a night, but usually kills more than it eats. The larger 
ones will also eat dogs and cats, goats and pigs. A snakea little 
over seventeen feet long ate two black swans on the garden lake 
at the rate of one a month, and I have had a python of about 
ducks, n one occasion five pythons were put together into 
а large cage. The biggest was а little over nineteen feet long, 
snakes feed oftener, usually once a month, and sometimes even 
oftener than that, A hungry python strikes its prey with light- 
ning-like rapidity, usually Seizing it by the head, if it is small - 
prey in a coil and a half and proceeds to swallow it slowly. In 
the case of fairly large animals, and those that are not killed by 
