1837.1 On the " Indian Boa," " Python Tigris." 535 



ensue ; — but the sudden dash of the Boa soon settled the point, and 

 in a second, both, as in the instance of the rabbit, lay entwined in a 

 confused knot before me. — The snake had seized the lizard by the 

 nose, and with such tremendous force had he thrown himself on his 

 prey, that the head was pointed backwards towards the tail, and the 

 neck bent double, with a tight coil round it to keep it so. — Two 

 other coils were on the body and a last one above the whole to add 

 weight to his enormous power. 



Astonished to find the Boa close coiled round his victim a full 

 hour after he had seized it, I took a stick to provoke him, thinking 

 that he was not inclined to feed, — but I soon perceived the reason for 

 his remaining thus inactive. The Goh still lived and moved its legs 

 when touched, in spite of the suffocating pressure and weight on its 

 body, and so tenacious of life was this reptile, that the Boa did not 

 uncoil until 3£ hours after he had seized it. Thus allowing him suffi- 

 cient instinct to know when his prey is dead, which he assuredly 

 does, the Goh must have lived in the horrid embrace of his destroyer 

 nearly all that time. 



The rabbit died in less than 10 minutes, — the Goh lived upwards 

 of 3 hours ! ! 



Part of the skin and several ova of the Goh were afterwards voided, 

 but I could find no trace of its long horny claws. — The ova were 

 covered with a strong skin, like those of a snake, and were still 

 whole. 



The grain which was in the crop of a recently fed partridge was af- 

 i terwards voided whole and apparently healthy. 



The long quills of a kite (falco cheela) were voided in a compact 

 bundle, much better packed together than any from a stationer's 

 I shop ! 



In a work called the " Tower menagerie," is a figure of the Indian 

 i Boa, supposed to be the Pedda Poda of Dr. Russell, and in the short 

 l account which accompanies it, allusion is made to its lubricating its 

 prey "with the foetid mucus secreted in its stomach." 



Reference is also made to an account " given by Mr. Broderip in 

 the second volume of the Zoological Journal from actual observation 

 of the specimens now in the Tower. In this account it is said that, 

 " the serpent after slowly disengaging his folds, placed his head oppo- 

 site to that of his victim, coiled himself once more around it to com- 

 press it into the narrowest possible compass, and then gradually pro- 

 pelled it into his separated jaws and dilated throat; and finally pre- 

 sents a disgusting picture of the snake when his meal was at an end, 

 3 z 2 



