PYTHONS. 5 I 



Mammalia ; while the Indian species (which has a vertical pupil) 

 prey chiefly, if not wholly, on the smaller Scincoid Lizards, which 

 they follow into their places of retreat. Lycodon aidicus is also a 

 common Snake in India, and is quite harmless, though often igno- 

 rantly supposed to be dangerous. 



The Amblycefihalidce, or Blunt Heads, comprise a few species 

 of moderate or small size, akin to the Dtpsadidcs, the narrow 

 mouth of which necessitates their feeding on insects, and they 

 live on trees and bushes, or under the roofs of huts. Of the 

 Indo-Chinese and Malayan Amblycephalus boa, Dr. Gunther remarks 

 that " the head of this most singular snake resembles much that 

 of a mastiff, the lips being arched and tumid. It climbs with 

 great facility, frequenting the roofs of the natives' huts in pursuit 

 of its insect food. It attains to a length of three feet, the tail being 

 a third." Of a second genus, F areas, three species inhabit the same 

 region. 



The Pythonidce, or Pythons, and Boas, are celebrated for the 

 enormous magnitude to which some of the species attain. These 

 are emphatically the great Constrictor Serpents, to all of which the 

 name of Boa Constrictor is popularly applied, although this appel^- 

 lation refers properly to one only which is peculiar to South 

 America. Various genera of them inhabit Africa, south-eastern 

 Asia and its islands, Australia, tropical America, and the West 

 Indies.] 



The Pythons are large serpents of Asia and : Africa. They live 

 in marshy places and near the margins of rivers. They are non- 

 venomous, but possessed of immense muscular power, which enables 

 some of the species to kill by constriction animals of much larger 

 circumference than themselves.. 



Aristotle tells us of immense Lybian serpents, so large that they 

 pursued and upset some of the triremes of voyagers visiting that 

 coast. Virgil's " Laocoon," so vividly represented in the well-known 

 marble group, owes its origin, no doubt, to the descriptions current 

 "of constricting serpents. Quoting Livy, Valerius Maximus relates 

 the alarm into which the Roman army, under Regulus, was thrown 

 by an enormous serpent, having its lair on the banks of the 

 Bagradus, near Utica. This serpent Pliny speaks of as being 120 

 feet long. Without multiplying instances to which time has lent its 

 fabulous aid, but coming to more modern times, Bontius speaks of 

 serpents in the Asiatic islands as being so various that he despairs 

 of even enumerating them all. "The great ones," he says, "some- 

 times exceed thirty-six feet, and have such capacity of throat and 



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