1837.] On the (( Indian Boa" " Python Tigris." 531 



the tight drawn folds of his own body, by which means the sic in was 

 shoved farther and farther back until it was all off, or in fact until he 

 had fairly crept out of it ! 



His colors which for some time previous had been very dim and 

 dark, now became quite bright and clean, possessing a fine bluish or 

 purplish bloom ; and his eye which but a few minutes before, had the 

 dull bluish hue, of a sightless orb, now shone keenly and savagely on 

 the spectator. 



Before he had cast his skin, and when he was about to swallow 

 the partridge he had just killed, — he made several attempts to swallow 

 it by commencing both at the tail, and at the middle of the body ; — 

 the feathers and the wings, however, offered such impediments that 

 he was, each successive time, obliged to relinquish it, nor could he, 

 with all his efforts, swallow it until he commenced at the head, when 

 the wings and limbs lying in their proper direction no longer offered 

 any resistance. 



It was evident that the snake was partially blind from the scales 

 of the old skin obstructing its sight, or it would not have attempted 

 to swallow its prey in such an " un-snake-like" manner. 



This snake could with ease swallow a large full grown rabbit, and 

 therefore the partridge* was a mere trifle, — yet until he began to 

 swallow it head foremost, it was impossible for it to pass into his throat; 

 — from my observations, 1 should certainly be inclined to agree with 

 Mr. WATERTONf, when he ridicules the idea of a Rattlesnake (crota- 

 lus horridus) swallowing a large American squirrel tail foremost, as 

 related by Audubon. Neverthelss, I should be sorry to say that the 

 Rattlesnake could not possibly have so swallowed it, because I hold 

 nothing to be impossible in nature, and we know that many incredi- 

 ble things may nevertheless be very true. 



The snake may have been a very large one, and capable of swal- 

 lowing a more bulky prey in which case it might be quite possible for 

 him to swallow it as described by Audubon, although the instinct 

 and habits of these reptiles and indeed common sense, would at once 

 point out that the head is the easiest place to commence at. 



In the Oriental Annual for the years, 1834 or 1835 is a story of a 



Boa Constrictor," having seized upon a boatman as he lay asleep 

 in the bottom of the boat, which was made fast to the shore of an 

 Island in the Sunderbunds. The description evidently shows that 

 ihe author is unacquainted with the manner in which these enormous 

 reptiles seize on their victims. He states that the snake had coiled 

 * Perdix picta. t Vide Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. 



