342 
ORDERS OF REPTILES— SERPENTS 
This splendid Python is at home in the hot 
and moist jungle which from Burmah to Java 
covers the land with a dense mantle of trees, 
thorny palms, rattans and tangled underbrush. 
The temperature is practically stationary all 
the year round, and varies little save between 
82° and 98° F. The frequent rains, and the 
moist, hot-house air of that region, with abun- 
dant animal food and ample cover, constitute 
ideal conditions for the rapid growth of reptiles, 
and the triennial shedding of their epidermis. 
It is no wonder that Pythons and king cobras 
grow large there, or that they are so numerous 
that many of the former are caught alive by the 
Malays. 
But the term "numerous” is capable of sev- 
eral interpretations, and in this case we enjoin 
a strict limitation. Although between forty 
and fifty Pythons of two large species 1 leave 
Singapore every year, let it not for one mo- 
ment be supposed that anywhere in the East 
Indies are these serpents so numerous that they 
constitute a danger to human life, or that it is 
even possible to find them by hunting for them. 
Quite the contrary. 
I spent several months in the Far East, roam- 
ing through jungles of all kinds, some of them 
so dense and so full of deadly bogs and miasma 
that now I recall them with a shudder. I never 
once found a wild Python, great or small ; nor a 
cobra, even in cobra-ridden Hindustan; nor did 
any of my own native followers ever find a spec- 
imen of either for me. The only wild Python 
I ever saw or handled in its home jungle was 
one that was brought to me in the Malay Penin- 
sula. It was hiding in a hollow tree, and when 
it looked out at a Malay who was passing, he 
whipped out his parong, cut off its head at one 
blow, and came to me calmly dragging behind 
him twelve feet of dead snake. 
So far as I could learn, even the largest Py- 
thons are harmless to man. They sometimes 
visit native villages, crawl through the frail 
fences which very feebly protect the domestic 
animals, and swallow — chickens and ducks! It 
is in these humble raids that some Pythons come 
to grief by being caught alive. But jungle peo- 
ple have no fear that a Python would make such 
1 The Black -Tailed Python (Pi/'thon mo-lu'rus), 
although smaller than the Reticulated, attains a 
length of 20 feet. 
a blunder as to attempt to make a conquest of a 
man. To be sure, in the Far East, people do not 
often go poking around in the jungles at night, 
in thick darkness. It is not considered the 
proper thing to do so. 
The food of the Pythons of the East Indies 
must consist chiefly of the muntjac, hog-deer and 
other deer of small size; young wild pigs, pheas- 
ants and jungle-fowl. Our captive Pythons pre- 
fer large chickens — full-feathered — and rabbits. 
A Python should voluntarily eat a full meal every 
two weeks. 
Until quite recently it was generally believed 
that if a large serpent would not feed voluntarily 
there was nothing to be done for it save to watch 
it commit suicide by starvation. Two years 
ago, Mr. Raymond L. Ditmars, Curator of Rep- 
tiles in the Zoological Park determined upon a 
very bold experiment. He decided that a starv- 
ing twenty-foot Python should be fed artificially. 
Accordingly, a smooth bamboo pole was pro- 
cured, and a string of four rabbits was tied up 
so that the pole would thrust the first one far 
into the serpent’s interior, and drag the others 
after it. The next question was, how could the 
snake be controlled? 
Summoning Keepers Snyder and Dahl, and 
five other men, the cage-door was opened. As 
the reptile raised its head to strike the intruders, 
a stream of cold water from a hose struck it full 
in the face. When it recoiled in confusion, the 
plucky keepers seized it by the neck, and quickly 
dragged it from its cage. As its form emerged, 
the waiting men seized it at proper intervals, and 
held it nearly straight. 
The Curator presented the pole-strung rab- 
bits, the first of which was angrily seized in the 
Python’s jaws. With this auspicious beginning, 
it was the work of only a few moments to grad- 
ually push the string of wet rabbits down the 
serpent’s throat, to a distance of seven feet, and 
withdraw the pole. Finally the tail and body of 
,the snake was thrust into the cage, and with a 
careful toss from the hands of Mr. Snyder, the 
head landed on the coils, sufficiently distant 
that the door could be closed without acci- 
dent. 
Since that time, all large serpents that fast 
too long are fed in this manner, and the food thus 
mechanically placed in the stomach is properly 
assimilated. 
