The Amphisbtena. 503 
South America, where it chiefly resides in the most re- 
tired situations in woods and marshes. 
The bite of this snake is not venomous, nor is the 
animal believed to bite at all, except to seize its prey. It 
kills its prey by twining round it and crushing its bones. 
The Python and the Anaconda, which are at least as 
large as the Boa Constrictor, are found chiefly in the 
Indian Islands : they are very similar both in form and 
colouring to the Boa, and have exactly the same habits. 
These monsters will attack and devour the largest ani- 
mals, of which the following is an instance : A Boa had 
for some time been waiting near the brink of a pool in 
expectation of its prey, when a buffalo appeared. Having 
darted upon the affrighted beast, it instantly began to 
encircle him with its voluminous twistings, and at every 
twist the bones of the buffalo were heard to crack as loud 
as the report of a gun. It was in vain that the animal 
struggled and bellowed ; its enormous enemy entwined 
it so closely that at length all its bones were crushed to 
pieces, like those of a malefactor on the wheel, and the 
whole body was reduced to one uniform mass : the serpent 
then untwined its folds in order to swallow its prey at 
leisure. To prepare for this, and also to make it slip 
down the throat more smoothly, it licked the whole body 
over, covering it with a mucilaginous substance. It 
then began to 'swallow it, at the end that afforded the 
least resistance, and in the act of swallowing, the throat 
suffered so great a dilation as to take in a substance that 
was thrice its own ordinary thickness. 
THE AMPHISB^NA. (Amphisbama fuliginosa.) 
This name is now applied only to a genus of South 
