238 CRUISE OF THE BARRERA 



who has collected many majas, gives twelve feet 

 for present-day specimens, and the conservative 

 Stejneger says an eight-footer is very large. This 

 is the Epicrates angulijer and is confined to Cuba; 

 it is very closely related to the Haitian boa. Like 

 all the boas, they remain for days inactive and 

 sluggish, but the maja is more than usually irri- 

 table and resentful of disturbance, striking swiftly 

 and inflicting a painful though not poisonous bite. 



Cuba shares the good fortune of the other islands 

 of the greater Antilles, in being wholly free from 

 poisonous reptiles. None of the pit vipers of our 

 moccasin-copper-head-rattle-snake type, so ex- 

 tensively distributed over the mainland of North 

 and Central America, seem ever to have found 

 lodgment in these tropical islands. The venom- 

 ous Elaps, represented by a number of species in 

 South and Central America (and by the coral- 

 snake in the United States), are also wholly absent 

 from the Antilles. The only dangerous snake in 

 any of the West Indies is the fer-de-lance of Mar- 

 tinique and some other islands of the chain south 

 of the Anegada channel. 



The origin and development of a poison sack 

 and hollow, or grooved fangs to inject venom into 



