76 SERPENTS 



capybaras, tamanduas, young peccaries and tapirs, and any 

 bird that is large enough to justify attention. Considering 

 the excellent climbing powers of the Boa Constrictor, and 

 the dulness of certain South American monkeys, it is highly 

 probable that monkeys furnish many a meal for this serpent. 

 The sloth is protected in two ways. It prefers the small and 

 weak outer branches of a tree, and it moves so slowly and 

 unostentatiously a Boa would be long in finding one. 



If a 12-foot Boa once wrapped itself around an una:rmed 

 man, it undoubtedly could suffocate him or crush him to 

 death, but it would be impossible for it to swallow him. 

 There is at hand no authentic record of a Boa Constrictor 

 ever having killed a man or a horse. In South America I 

 was assured by native hunters that Boas and anacondas 

 swallow antlered deer, but when direct proof of this was 

 called for, it never came. 



The Anaconda^ is the great water-constrictor of South 

 America, and it so loves the aqueous element that some cap- 

 tive specimens never leave their bathing-tanks unless forced 

 to do so. This serpent is strongly marked for identification 

 by the very large black spots, round or nearly so, which cover 

 its back from head to tail, laid on a dark olive ground. Some- 

 times these are arranged in pairs, and suggest dumb-bells. 



This species attains very great size, and being fully equal 

 to the reticulated python of the East Indies, it is one of the 

 largest of living serpents. Of course it can hardly happen 

 that specimens of the largest size would find their way into 

 zoological gardens. The largest thus far exhibited in the 



^ Eu-nec'tes mu-ri'nus. 



