68 SNAKES OF CEYLON. 



Specimens of 18 feet are not very uncommon, as will be 

 seen from the following records, and there is little doubt that 

 it exceeds 20 feet. In the Bombay Natural History Journal* 

 Ferguson records an 18 footer from the Ashambu hills, and 

 Major Begbief one of a similar length killed near Baksa 

 Duars. Other specimens of like proportions have been 

 recorded by the late D. Ferguson in Ceylon, J and in the 

 Pioneer from Rajshai (Rajapur).§ I saw the skin of a speci- 

 men of the same length in the possession of Mr. A. M. Harry 

 in Assam. Mr. Prince of the King's Own Shropshire Light 

 Infantry shot a female in the United Provinces in 1906, which 

 measured 18 feet 3 inches. In Land and Water (August 10, 

 1866 or 1867 ?) one is mentioned from Mussoorie of 18 feet 

 9 inches. Tennent|| refers to a specimen brought him in 

 Ceylon that taped 19 feet. Another reported of a similar 

 length was encountered by Captain George and Mr. Delmege 

 when shooting in Ceylon. This was captured and brought 

 to Colombo, and exhibited in 1885, when I saw it. Jerdon^f 

 saw a 19 foot specimen killed in Travancore, and Dr. Elmes 

 told me of one he shot in Assam (N. Lakhimpur District) of 

 the same size. A specimen measuring 19 feet 2 inches in our 

 Society's collection, shot by the late Maharajah of Cooch 

 Behar in Assam, was originally reported in this Journal** as 

 a Malayan python (P. reticulatus). Captain Percivalft sa y s 

 he saw one in Ceylon 22 feet long, and the specimen mentioned 

 by John Ray, and stated by him to be in the Leyden Museum 

 was, he states, 25 feet (I have not been able to get con- 

 firmation of this from Leyden, but notice that Dumeril and 

 Bibron refer to one in that Institution 20 feet). ElliotfJ 



* Vol. X., p. 69. 



f Vol. XVII., p. 1021. 



% Rept. Funna, Ceylon, p. 22. 



§ July 3, 1907. 



|| Nat. His. of Ceylon, II., p. 153. 



yi Journ. Ass. Soc, Bengal, XXII., p. 526. 



** Rept. Brit. Ass., 1877, Trans., p. 115. 



ft The Island of Ceylon, 1805, p. 311. 



U Vol. XIIL, p. 718. 



