170 
OF THE PHYSIOOFOMY OF SEEPEFTS. 
through all intertropical Asia, as far as Java and China, 
The largest serpent of the ancient world, attaining a length 
of twenty feet. 
2. Python Schneideri. — Form much more slender; 
head much shorter, and size less than the preceding ; head 
narrow, covered with plates more than usually developed ; 
muzzle turned up at the end ; anterior labial plates chan- 
nelled by a groove ; the last plates of the lower lip are 
equally provided with a groove ; scales of the trunk very 
small. S. 320 + 90. Yellowish grey-brown, with a mid- 
dle black ray on the top of the head, which extends to the 
body, interlacing with other rays, and thus forming a 
reticular design. Grows to fourteen feet, and inhabits 
Malacca, Java, Sumatra, and Amboina. 
3. Python amethystinus. — Plates of the head more 
developed than in the other species ; the labial grooves 
nearly as in the preceding ; form more than usually slen- 
der; 41 rows of scales. S. 300-1-96. Variegated with 
reddish brown and yellowish tints, which often form an 
obsolete reticulated design; size about six feet; comes 
from Saparua, a little isle in the group of Amboina. 
The islands of Timor, Samao, and New Ireland, produce a 
Python almost absolutely similar, except that the charac- 
ters are less marked. 
4. Python Peronii. — -From New Holland. Size about 
six feet ; head much broader than in the other species ; 
nostrils very spacious, and directed upwards ; muzzle very 
obtuse ; upper part of the head is covered with numerous 
scaly plates, irregular, and larger towards the extremity 
of the snout. Fossettes in the lips, as in the preceding 
species ; 41 rows of smooth scales. S, 275-1-83. Black, 
sprinkled with markings and dashes of golden yellow, 
more or less large, according, as it would seem, to the 
places it inhabits. 
AC ROCH ORDUS 
Is the third genus of the Family of Boas, These Ophi- 
dians are very singular and anomalous in their organiza- 
tion. They are, however, Boas^ though anomalous Boas. 
