Chap. IX.] 



SHAKES. 



303 



appended to this chapter. One of these, the Uropeltis 

 grandis of Kelaart l 9 is distinguished by its dark brown 

 colour, shot with a bluish metallic lustre, closely ap- 

 proaching the ordinary shade of the cobra ; and the tail 

 is abruptly and flatly compressed as though it had been 

 severed by a knife. The form of this singular reptile 

 will be best understood by a reference to the accom- 

 panying figure ; and there can, I think, be little doubt 

 that to its strange and anomalous structure is to be 

 traced the fable of the transformation of the cobra de 

 capello. The colour alone would seem to identify the 

 two reptiles, but the head and mouth are no longer 

 those of a serpent, and the disappearance of the tail 

 might readily suggest the mutilation which the tradition 

 asserts. 



The Singhalese Buddhists, in their religious abstinence 

 from inflicting death on any creature, are accustomed, 

 after securing a venomous snake, to enclose it in a 

 basket woven of palm leaves, and to set it afloat on a 

 river. 



The Python. — The great python 2 (the "boa," as it is 

 commonly designated by Europeans, the " anaconda" of 

 Eastern story), which is supposed to crush the bones of 

 an elephant, and to swallow the tiger, is found, though 



1 The Uropeltis grandis of Eastern Archipelago. The charac- 



Kelaart, which was at first sup- teristics of this reptile, as given by 



posed to be a new species, proves Dr. Gray, are as follows :— " Caudal 



to be identical with U. Phillip- disc subcircular, with large scat- 



pinus of Cuvier. It is doubtful, tered tubercles ; snout subacute, 



however, whether this species be slightly produced. Dark brown,' 



found in the Phillippine Islands, as lighter below, with some of the 



stated by Cuvier ; and it is more scales dark brown in the centre 



than probable that the typical spe- near the posterior edge. Gray, 



cimen came from Ceylon — a fur- Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 262. 



ther illustration of the affinity of 2 Python reticularis, Gray, 

 the fauna of Ceylon to that of the 



