SERPENTS. 357 



and, after wrapping several coils of its body about it, strangles. Finally, having 

 crushed the larger bones, the process of deglutition is begun, which may last for sev- 

 eral hours ; the head invariably being the first to pass into the gullet, the body follow- 

 ing. As the teeth all point inwards, and the jaws are successively and alternately 

 pushed forward and drawn back, the prey, if not too large, is thus of necessity drawn 

 into the mouth. The reptile may, however, find that its food is not suitable, or it may 

 need to take breath, and though the prey has passed some way down the oesophagus, 

 it is not unfrequently disgorged, making its appearance as a most frightfully contorted 

 mass, covered with mucus from the alimentary tract ; its slimy appearance having un- 

 doubtedly given rise to the false notion that the animal covers its prey, previous to 

 deglutition, with saliva. For some time after the reptile has taken a large meal, it is, 

 either from fatigue or from the effects of so loading its stomach, extremely lazy and 

 inactive, being not infrequently quite indifferent to what may be going on about it. 

 The inactivity of menagerie specimens, however, is due rather to the enfeebling effect 

 of a cold climate, rather than torpor resulting from overfeeding, or gentleness from 

 kind treatment. It is in their native forests that these forms must be studied to be 

 admired. Not only are the caged animals inactive, but the purple bloom, so charafr: 

 teristic of the healthy animal, is invariably defective or lost ; the rough treatment to 

 which they are subjected, as well as a disease of the jaw, — caries, — rendering them 

 indifferent and unhealthy. 



It is not an unusual occurrence for the female python, which exceeds the male in 

 size, to deposit her eggs while in confinement and watch over them with the most 

 zealous care. Observations have been made which prove that the eggs are actually 

 incubated. The mother, after arranging them in a convenient pile, coils her body, 

 the temperature of which is considerably above the normal, around and over them, 

 remaining in this position untU the eggs, at the end of about three months, are hatched. 

 We have here among the reptiles an undoubted instance of maternal solicitude. 



Pyth<yn reticulatus has the following characteristic marking. The underlying color 

 is light yeUo wish-brown or olive, and the head and neck is ornamented by a dark 

 brown line passing from the tip of the snout backwards, on each side of which are 

 two bands passing from the eyes to the angles of the mouth. Along the back a series 

 of black rings bordered with white, spotted scales gives the animal a netted appear- 

 ance, from which it has received its specific name, reticulatus. The netted python is 

 found quite abundantly in nearly all the islands of the Malay Archipelago, as well as 

 in Burmah and Siam, where it is called Ular Sawad. 



Mr. Wallace, in his description of these islands, gives an account of a python 

 which illustrates the bold and independent yet helpless nature of this, or a closely 

 allied, mammoth serpent. It seems that during the evening, while the naturalist was 

 interesting himself with his books and insects, a python took up its abode in the 

 thatched roof directly over the bed, not making its presence known, however, until 

 the following afternoon, when it was finally disposed of by a native well accustomed 

 to its habits, though it evinced all the indignation of a regular tenant. 



Python molurus, the adjiger of the Hindus, inhabits the peninsula of India as far 

 north as the Himmalehs and also possibly the Malay peninsula and Java. Like other 

 members of the family, it prefers the low moist lands in the neighborhood of water, 

 where it captures birds and small quadrupeds, such as fawns and rodents. It differs 

 from the previous species in several particulars. P. molurus has the two anterior 

 upper labials, and four of the lower labials, deeply dented with pits, while P. reticu- 



