SNAKES OF CEYLON. 45 



Family BOID/E. 



(Named after the type Genus Boa*) 



General Characters. — This family includes the largest snakes 

 that are known, such as the Pythons, the Boas, and the Ana- 

 conda. The head is more or less depressed, the snout rather 

 long, without canthus, and broadly rounded anteriorly. The 

 eye is small with a vertical pupil. The nostril is placed rather 

 high on the side of the snout between two or three shields. 

 The chin may reveal a mental groove or not. The body is 

 massive, attenuating towards the neck and posteriorly. 

 Rudimentary hind limbs are present, the extremities of which 

 are visible as claw-like processes on either side of the vent. 

 Those I have dissected out consist of two bones, the analogues 

 of the femur, and tibia of mammals. The former is not 

 articulated to any pelvic bone, but lies completely free. The 

 tibia is articulated to the femur. The belly is rounded. The 

 tail is short, and prehensile in many of the species. 



Identification. — The costals are longer than broad, and the 

 scales in the last row about half the breadth of the ventrals, 

 The anal is as broad as the ventrals. 



Habits. — They are subterrestrial, terrestrial, or semi-aquatic. 

 Very sluggish by nature, they do not pursue their prey, but 

 conceal themselves, some by burrowing, some in water, and 

 others in trees, and rely on their victims coming within their 

 grasp. Once the victim is seized, life is quickly exterminated 



* (From Boa one of the genera of the family. Boa is derived from 

 Latin "bos''' a cow, and is based on the old fable that some, or one, of 

 the species sucked the milk from cows.) 



Linne (1738 to 1783) says that Pliny (23 to 79 a.d.) mentions the 

 story of the boa sucking the milk from cows. 



Topsell in his " Historie of Serpents " ( 1 608) says : " The Latin es called 

 it (Boa constrictor?) "boa" or " bova " because by sucking cowe's 

 milke it so encreaseth, that in the end it destroyeth all manner of herds, 

 cattell, and regions." Cordante, too, says : 



"The Boas serpent which Italy doth breede 

 Men say, uppon the milke of cowes doth feede." 



