PYTHON NATALENSIS. 
whose circumference was equal to that of the body of a stout man: we have ourselves seen a 
skin which measured twenty-five feet, though a portion of the tail part was deficient. It feeds 
upon quadrupeds, and for some days after swallowing food, it remains in a torpid state, and 
may then be easily destroyed. The South Africans, however, seldom avail themselves of these 
opportunities of ridding themselves of a reptile they view with horror, as they believe that it 
has a certain influence over their destinies ; and affirm, that no person has ever been known to 
maltreat it without, sooner or later, paying for his audacity. 
Owing to the difficulty of discriminating between certain species of Python , we are not prepared 
to maintain this reptile to be distinct from the Indian species ( Python Uvittatus, Schlegel). 
The characters which have been assumed as indicative of specific differences, do not appear to 
us to have been of sufficient value ; the modifications to which they are liable m different 
specimens, of whose specific identity no doubt can exist, show some other characters must ie 
discovered before certainty can be attained. The Indian species is doubtless an inhabitant o 
Africa, and there are several specimens of it, both from India and W estern Africa, 
museum at Fort Pitt, Chatham, which are precisely similar. Between these, however, and the 
species we have just described, there are several well-marked differences. The scales of 
Python Natalensis are proportionally smaller than in the individuals above mentioned; then 
form is also different. The labial fossa: are more numerous in young specimens, from Western 
Africa and India, than in those of a similar age from South Africa ; in the latter they are two 
upon each side, in the others, four or five ; the plates on the head, also, are differently shaped 
and differently disposed. The pattern of the markings, when viewed in detail, is also distinctly 
different, though there is a sort of general resemblance. Persons who have opportunities ot 
examining species of Python would do well to ascertain if the labial fossce vary in number in 
different individuals of the same species and of the same size, also whether their number 
diminishes as age advances. 
