SCALED REPTILES— SNAKES. 419 



ing. During this period he generally drank a quart of water daily, The 

 man who brought him stated that he had been seen to eat a hog-deer the 

 day before he was taken. One evening early in July, hearing a noise, I 

 went out, and discovered that the snake had left his harbour under the 

 boards of a stable where he generally lay, and having entered a small shed 

 in which some fowls were roosting, had swept eleven from the perch, and 

 destroyed them by pressing them between his folds. Then taking them one by 

 one head foremost into his mouth, swallowed the whole down in twenty minutes. 

 The largest animal that he ate while in my possession was a calf, which he 

 killed and gorged in two hours and twenty minutes. He never attacked 

 dogs, cats, or pigs. Of these last, indeed, he seemed to be in dread, for 

 whenever one was presented to him, he retired to a corner and coiled himself 

 up with his head undermost. If fed with animals not larger than a duck, he 

 ate readily every day, but after the meal of a goat refused food for a month." 

 In Australia the genus is represented by P. spilotis, of which one variety is 

 commonly termed the diamond-snake, the other the carpet-snake. 



An Australian writer observes that " of our two pythons or rock-snakes, 

 one, the diamond-snake, does not occur farther south than New South 

 Wales, whilst the carpet-snake has a wider range, extending from Queens- 

 land to even as far as Southern Victoria. These pythons may reach the 

 length of sixteen feet, but a more usual length is eight feet to ten feet. 

 The diamond-snake has a yellow spot in the centre of each of its black 

 scales, whilst the carpet-snake has a series of lighter patches with dark 

 centres along each side, producing a fancied resemblance to the pattern of a 

 carpet. They are really nocturnal animals, feeding on birds and small 

 mammals, whilst in turn the blacks will eat their flesh with avidity." Krefft 

 thus describes the way in which they secure their prey-, — "Coiled on the 

 branch of a tree, the reptile moves only the head and p.irt of the body, 

 advancing and retreating, in fact measuring its distance, with its head and 

 neck bent into the form of a horizontal S. When pretty sure of its aim, the 

 snake darts forward with open jaws, fastens upon its victim, and in an 

 instant brings it within a loop formed by a portion of the body, which 

 gradually tightens till the prey is suffocated. In this position the snake will 

 remain for twenty minutes or half an hour, holding the body of the animal 

 tightly. It then gradually uncoils, and, if inclined to feed, begins the pro- 

 cess of swallowing with the head." In Africa the best known representative 

 of the genus is Python sclxi:, commonly termed the Natal rock-snake in the 

 southern parts of that continent. Nearly allied to the pytlions are the genera 

 Laxocemiis, Nardoa, and Liasis; the first including a single small species 

 from Mexico, tlio second one inhabiting New Ireland, while the third has 

 several representatives ranging from Timor to New Guinea and Northern 

 Australia. All these resemble the true pythons in having the premaxillie 

 ttjothed, but in the I'apuan Chrondroyjythoii,, as well as in the North Australian 

 A.tpidites and the West African Cidahmla, those bones carry no teeth. 



The absence of premaxillary tectli is likewise characteristic of the members 

 of the sub-family Boiiun, which are, however, specially distinguished by the 

 want of the aforesaid supraoccipitiil bone in the skull. All have teeth on the 

 palate, and likewise most of the shields on the lower surface of the tail 

 arranged in a single series ; but in these respects they resemble some of the 

 three genera last mentioned. Most of the boa tribe have the head well 

 marked oft' from the neck, and the tail with a certain amount of prehen.sile 

 power. Foremost among these are the trco-boas of the genus lipkratca, in all 



