304 



EEPTILES. 



[Chap. IX. 



not of such portentous dimensions, in the cinnamon 

 gardens within a mile of the fort of Colombo, where it 

 feeds on hog-deer, and other smaller animals. 



The natives occasionally take it alive, and securing it 

 to a pole expose it for sale as a curiosity. One that 

 was brought to me tied in this way measured seventeen 

 feet with a proportionate thickness : but one more fully 

 grown, which crossed my path on a coffee estate on the 

 Peacock Mountain at Pusilawa, considerably exceeded 

 these dimensions. Another which I watched in the 

 garden at Elie House, near Colombo, surprised me by 

 the ease with which it erected itself almost perpendi- 

 cularly in order to scale a wall upwards of ten feet 

 high. 



The Singhalese assert that when it has swallowed a 

 deer, or any animal of similarly inconvenient bulk, the 

 python draws itself through the narrow aperture between 

 two trees, in order to crush the bones and assist in the 

 process of deglutition. 



It is a singular fact that the small and innocuous 

 ground-snakes called Calamarice, which abound on the 

 continent of India and in the islands, are not to be found 

 in Ceylon ; where they would appear to be replaced by 

 two singular genera, the Aspidura and Haplocercus. 

 These latter have only one series of shields below 

 the tail, whilst most other harmless snakes {Cala- 

 maria included) have a double series of sub-caudals. 

 The Aspidura has been known to naturalists for 

 many years 1 ; the Haplocercus of Ceylon has only 

 recently been described by Dr. GHinther, and of it not 

 more than three existing specimens are known : hence 



1 Boie in Isis 1827 p. 517. 



