THE BOA CONSTRICTOR 293 



In the course of a whole day it may possibly not move a yard 

 from the spot where it spent the previous night. Nothing excites 

 it, and nothing alarms it; and even when it sees an insect, it 

 hesitates about catching it for so long that very often it loses its 

 expected victim. 



THE SNAKES (Sub-order Ophidia) 



While we are still among the great order of Reptiles, the 

 Squamata, we have reached the Ophidians, the true snakes. This 

 sub-order contains a very large number of species. About fifteen 

 hundred species are known, but they are scattered the whole world 

 over, except in New Zealand, and in places, as in parts of Asia and 

 tropical America, they occur in great abundance. 

 This sub-order is divided into several families. 



PYTHONS, BOAS, ANACONDAS (Family BoiD^) 



Passing by one or two families of small Ophidians, called Blind- 

 snakes, we come to the most formidable family among them all. 

 This includes the largest of the snakes. 



THE BOA CONSTRICTOR 



The serpent which we call the Boa Constrictor is, with the 

 exception of the anaconda and the python, the largest and most 

 powerful snake in the world. It lives in the swampy forests of 

 tropical America and Madagascar, and sometimes grows to a 

 length of twelve or fourteen feet. In girth of body it is equal 

 to the thigh of a man. It is so strong, moreover, that it can crush 

 a deer or dog to death in a few minutes. 



When the boa constrictor is watching for prey, it usually 

 conceals itself in a tree, with its tail coiled tightly round a stout 

 branch. When an animal passes within reach, the snake darts 

 at it, seizes it with its jaws, and then, with the speed of lightning, 

 folds it in the coils of its body, and proceeds to crush it to 

 death. 



