ConJBKiNis Serpents. EEPTILES. Boas. 
54 
it to death. When thoroughly flattened out, it slowly 
begins to swallow it, commencing always with the head. 
If the animal it has devoured be large, the act occupies 
some considerable time, and the huge creature then 
sinks into a state of lethargic stupor, and may easily be 
mastered. Boas may Ite tamed as well as Rattlesnakes, 
and both in America and Africa have had religious 
rites and homage paid to them. 
The species of the family Buidce are divided into two 
large sections : — I. Those which have the tail strongly 
[U'ehensile, the spurs large and exposed, the head 
elongate, distinct Irom the neck, and the muzzle trun- 
cated. The eyes are noctuiTial, the pupil being oblong, 
erect. II. fl’hose which have the tail very short and 
only slightly prehensile, or, in some, not prehensile 
at all. The head in these is very small, and not 
distinct from the body. The spurs are small, in some 
being quite distinctly visible externally, but in others 
hidden under the skin. 
In the first division we have two subfamilies, the 
Pythons {_Pylhonina) and the Boas {Boina). 
The Pythons are distinguished by their having the 
plates under the tail (subcaudal plates) in two rows; 
distinct intermaxillary or canine teeth ; the upper part 
of the orbit formed by a particular bone ; and the 
plates on the lips (labial plates) more or less deeply 
pitted. 
The Boas are distinguished by their subcaudal 
plates being entire, in only one row, and no inter- 
maxillary or canine teeth at all. The Pythons are all 
natives of tlie Old World. The greater number of the 
Boas are natives of America. 
THE EOCK SNAKE (Fython molurus ) — represented 
in Plate 5, fig. 1, Plate 8, figs. 2, 2a (skeleton and 
skull), and fig. 15 annexed — is one of the most remark- 
able species of this subfamily, and is a native of 
India, and some of the large islands, as Java, &c. It 
generally occurs from seven to thirteen feet in length, 
but even Schlegel mentions having himself seen one 
that measured twenty feet. The colours are brilliant 
and lively. A pale yellowish coffee-brown colour pre- 
dominates on the upper parts, losing itself in numerous 
gray marblirigs on the flanks, which scarcely allows the 
beautiful yellow colour of the ground to be seen, hut 
which spreads uniformly over the belly. The head is 
variegated with red; the muzzle is marked with a 
square brownish -black spot, another is seen above the 
eye, and a third, broad and club-shaped, is prolonged 
from beliind the eye to the neck. The iris is of a 
golden yellow colour. The adults are more brilliantly 
coloured than the young. The head is distinct from 
the body, is tolerably broad, elongate, depressed on the 
summit, and terminates in a narrow rounded muzzle. 
The nostrils, large and round, are slightly distant from 
each other, and are directed backwards. The eye is 
nearly lateral, and directed slightly forwards. The tail 
is much smaller in circumference than the trunk, and 
is rather short and conical. On the continent of India 
this serpent is known to the natives by the name of 
the Bora or Pedda Poda, but by the English is called 
the Rock Snake. Russell, who describes it, says he 
never saw one exceeding ten feet in length, and states 
that he has observed them twisting themselves round 
tne arms of the snakemen, who merely complained of 
the arm being benumbed by their grasp. In the island 
of Java, however, they would appear to grow to a much 
Ftp;. 15 
Head of the Kock Snake (Python molurus;. 
larger size. M. Reinwardt, as Schlegel informs us, 
brought from thence to Europe a skeleton of this 
species which exceeded seventeen feet. “ The Malays 
of Java,” he says, “call it Oular-Sawa or Oular-Rava. 
It inhabits low, shady, marshy, or inundated places, 
and apj)ears to delight in rice-fields. It is said to reach 
the length of twenty -five feet, but the largest I have 
ever seen only measured seventeen. The natives draw 
a good omen from the neighbourhood of this serpent. 
I have sometimes found in its stomach the hoofs of 
deer, and it attacks also pigs.” M. Boie, a corre- 
spondent of Schlegel, and who has been mentioned 
before, thus writes: — “This Python sometimes attains 
an enormous size. It attacks pigs, and the deer called 
Muntjac, but human beings have nothing to fear from 
it. Its muscular power is astonishing. An individual, 
the thickness of a man’s thigh, which had just been 
taken, escaped from a cage made for containing wild 
animals, breaking the iron bars which closed the 
entrance. Individuals of such a size, however, are 
very rare.” Specimens of this species have not unfre- 
quently been brought alive to Europe, and not long ago 
four examjfies of it were to be seen in the Zoological 
Gardens, Regent’s Park. An account of the habits of 
some which were kept alive in Paris has been given us 
by Schlegel. They were from seven to ten and thir- 
teen feet long, and were brought from Bengal. In 
their general disposition they were mild and gentle, 
and very slow in their movements, even although pro- 
voked, They were kept in a box enveloped in flannel. 
