Boa constrictor

“ The snake stopped and from its mouth came a hiss that sounded like a jet of escaping steam and lasted fully half a minute. Still the eyes came no nearer but motion was discernible in the darkened corner from which the reptile had appeared. The boa constrictor, for such it was, was noiselessly drawing foot after foot of its thick body into the chamber in preparation for a quick lunge at its victim. In a flash the scale-covered coils would be thrown about the cub, crushing him into pulp. ”

“ Occasionally, amongst the dense mass could be perceived the huge boa-constrictor, rolling in convolutions—now looking back with fiery eyes upon his pursuers, now precipitating his flight—while the air was thronged with its winged tenants, wildly screaming, and occasionally dropping down dead with fear. To crown the whole, high in the expanse, a multitude of vultures appeared, almost stationary on the wing, waiting for their share of the anticipated slaughter. ”

“ As Karl Hagenbeck stood with me, in his Hamburg Wild Beast Emporium, before the great cage of the boa constrictors and pythons, he naturally fell to relating some of the curious adventures that have befallen him with snakes and other brutes.
There was a great ugly looking boa constrictor coiled up in a corner by itself, a most repulsive looking animal.
“He’s a beauty, isn’t he?” said Mr. Hagenbeck, looking fondly on him. “He swallowed four whole sheep in one day, and only nine days after that he got another, and seemed to enjoy it as much as if he had been fasting for months. ”

“ He was still engaged in this operation when a great creeper with scarlet flowers, hanging about twenty feet above the head of the rattle-snake, began to move in a curious way, and out of the wreaths of leaves and blossoms came a big, black body, as large as a man's arm—a boa-constrictor. It glided down the creeper towards the trunk of the magnolia, taking the greatest care to do nothing which could rouse the attention of the rattle-snake, who, indeed, was wholly occupied in making ready the squirrel to swallow. ”

“ The saliva with which the boa covers its prey tends to promote rapid decomposition. The muscular flesh is rendered gelatinously soft under its action, so that the animal is able to force entire limbs of its slain victim through its swelling throat. The Creoles call the giant boa Tragavenado (stag-swallower) , and fabulously relate that the antlers of a stag which could not be swallowed by the snake have been seen fixed in its throat. I have frequently observed the boa constrictor swimming in the Orinoco, and in the smaller forest streams, the Tuamini, the Temi, and the Atabapo. ”

“ Not quite everybody has this foolish fear of all snakes, the good and the bad alike, for there are some who make pets of them. And snakes thus petted become very tame and grow fond of those who take care of them. This is the case even with the huge python and the boa-constrictor, the greatest of all snakes. They are not poisonous, but when they wind their body in strong coils around an animal, even one of good size, they can soon crush the life out of it. ”

“ SERPENT ATTACKING A LASCAR.
the seats, and fell asleep. Whilst he was in this state of unconsciousness an enormous Boa constrictor, (or Python) emerged from the jungle, reached the boat, had already coiled its huge body round the sleeper, and was in the act of crushing him to death, when his companions fortunately returned; and attacking the monster, severed a portion of its tail, which so disabled it that it no longer retained the power of doing mischief. The Snake was then easily despatched, and was found to measure sixty-two feet and some inches in length. ”

“ Another subject of curiosity belonging to this class, is, The Boa Constrictor.—A serpent very remarkable for its vast size; some of the principal species of which are met with in India, Africa, and South America, and have been seen between thirty and forty feet long, possessed of so much strength as to be able to kill cattle by twisting around them, and crushing them to death by pressure, after which they devour them, eating till they are almost unable to move ”

“ It is well to remember what to do in case of attack by a formidable snake. If a boa constrictor or a python begin to curl himself about you, you should pinch him vigorously, and he will loosen his folds and get away from you. Some may prefer to blow his head off with a pistol, but it is largely a matter of taste, and one doesn't want to damage a good specimen. The anaconda, however, who is the biggest of the constrictors, won't let go for pinching; in this case the best thing is not to let him get hold of you at all. Tobacco-juice will kill a puff-adder. ”

“ The Pythonidæ, or Pythons, and Boas, are celebrated for the enormous magnitude to which some of the species attain. These are emphatically the great constrictor Serpents, to all of which the name of Boa-constrictor is popularly applied, although this appellation refers properly to one only of them which is peculiar to South America. Various genera of them inhabit Africa, South-eastern Asia and its islands, Australia, and South America, with the West Indies. ”

“ A boa constrictor produced both eggs and living young in the Zoological Gardens at Amsterdam. The eggs of serpents are without a calcareous shell, and those of our common species are often exposed in turning the ground in fields and in gardens. The young are at once quite active, and we have seen them when very young display the instinctive habits of their species.
The python coils around her eggs, and faithfully remains there during their two months of incubation; the temperature of her body rising, in one instance, to 96° Fahr. ”

“ The boa-constrictor has no teeth and no second stomach; it chews by crushing between its body and a tree the beast which it is to swallow. The chewing mouth of the boa has for one jaw the tree, for the other its own body ”

“ Presently the snake, with an incomprehensibly quick movement—in fact, almost too quick for the eye to follow—succeeded in getting two more coils around the body of the jaguar, but not without receiving several severe lacerations from the formidable claws of its victim. Then letting go the jaguar's head, where it seemed to have a firm hold, the boa-constrictor raised its head, seemingly in triumph, and, with its tail still wrapped round the tree, lifted the body of the jaguar up in the air. ”

“ The family of the boas, known scientifically as the boidae, contains many species which are to be found in all parts of the world: the diamond snake of Australia, the rock python of Natal, the Indian python, and the great South American genera--the anaconda and the true boa-constrictor.
All these reptiles are remarkable for the partial development of hinder limbs, proving conclusively that the snakes and lizards are nearly related to one another. These rudimentary limbs, however, are not visible in the living animals, being covered by the skin, but are quite evident in their skeletons. ”

“ This fable teaches.
XLVII.
"I hate snakes who bestow their caresses with interested partiality or fastidious discrimination," [pg 30] boasted a boa constrictor. "My affection is unbounded; it embraces all animated nature. I am the universal shepherd; I gather all manner of living things into my folds. Entertainment here for man and beast!" ”

“ Sailors, on the waters of the Amazon, often surprise the alligator sunning himself on the banks, and perhaps see also the boa-constrictor, thirty or forty feet long, coiled around the body of some unfortunate animal and crushing it to death. ”

“ The boas, one kind of which, the boa-constrictor, has long been famous among monsters, are much like the pythons, but are found only in tropical America and in Madagascar, and spend the greater part of their lives in the trees. They are quite as large as the pythons, and quite as formidable. ”

“ You can see that a soft palate would have been quite useless here, and that the serpent has not much need of teeth to chew his food. Accordingly, his are nothing but simple prongs, like those of the lizard, and, like his, they extend over the palate, the more effectually to cut off the return of the swallowed masses of food. About a hundred and twenty have been counted in the throat of the boa-constrictor; but their number varies considerably in the different species. They are not organs of the highest order, and nature is not very particular about the quantity. ”

“ This latter, and also the Indian tree snakes, Trimeresuri, are poisonous, and far removed from the boas with the true prehensile tail. Familiar to every one are illustrations of tropical scenery, in which the boa constrictor and the anaconda, hanging from trees, are important features. Dumeril, in general terms, says: ‘Les ophidiens rampent, glissent, s’accrochent, se suspendent, gravissent en s’aidant de la totalité de leur corps, sautent, s’élancent, bondissent, nagent, et plongent,’ [56] in every one of which movements the tail is an important agent. ”

“ Mosquitos and other venomous insects are the great plagues of this fine country, and about twenty kinds of serpents, of which, the rattle-snake is the most common, and the boa constrictor the largest, frequent its woods and plains. ”

“ The species is common in the Philippines, but it is rare to meet with a specimen of very large dimensions. It is possible, nay probable, that centuries of time are necessary for this reptile to attain its largest size; and to such an age, the various accidents to which animals are exposed, rarely suffer it to attain. Full-sized boas are consequently to be met with only in the gloomiest, most remote, and most solitary forests.
A Wild Boar attacked by a Boa Constrictor.
Page 222.
I have seen many boas of ordinary size, such as are found in our European collections. ”

“ The snakes are of the boa-constrictor tribe, and are considered quite harmless, although I have my doubts upon it. They generally leave this house at intervals, and when found by any of the natives, are taken up and immediately conveyed back to the fetish-house, where they are placed on the top of the wall, under the thatch. It is disgusting to witness the homage paid to these reptiles by the natives. When one of them is picked up by any one, others will prostrate themselves as it is carried past, throwing dust on their heads, and [Pg 127] begging to be rubbed over the body with the reptile. ”

“ Of the serpents which are dreaded—not for their bite, for they have no poison-fangs—but for their great strength and daring, and for the way in which they coil round their victims, crushing them to death in their terrible embrace—the most dangerous are the Python of the Old World, and the Boa-constrictor of the New. ”

“ I have before remarked that these snakes are not considered dangerous to man, as they are not poisonous; and if those attacked had a sharp knife, and managed to keep their arms free, Mr Snake would get the worst of it. If one happened, however, to be asleep, and a boa-constrictor then became familiar, he might so have wound himself round arms and body as to prevent a knife being used. I have no doubt that they have power sufficient to crush any man to death in a very few seconds, did they once get themselves comfortably settled round his ribs ”

“ They are perfectly harmless, and live on small animals, chiefly the rodentia; occasionally the steinbuck and pallah fall victims, and are sucked into its comparatively small mouth in boa-constrictor fashion. ”

“ Besides that elephant there were stowed in that hold cages containing wolves, hyenas, wild hogs, wild asses, monkeys, porcupines, and zebras. There were three or four cages full of poisonous snakes, one variety of which I recognized, the curse of India—the hooded cobra. Then there was a big python, picked up at Rio, and a boa-constrictor, taken aboard at one of the Pacific islands. ”

“ I was told that the tame tapir never shows any disposition to return to his native wilds. In this respect he resembles the elephant, and I believe the naturalists class him in the elephant family.
"The alcalde had a houseful of pets, including several birds and monkeys, and, strangest of all, a snake. It was perfectly free, and was kept for killing rats, mice, lizards, and other things that were more destructive of the owner's property than is the snake. Manuel said it was a giboia, a species of boa constrictor; it is not poisonous, and when taken young is easily tamed. ”

“ Unluckily for him everything yielded to his efforts: he tore up the young trees by the roots, [225] broke off the branches, and dislodged enormous stones, round which he sought in vain to obtain the hold or point of resistance he needed. The nooses were strong, and withstood his almost furious efforts.
Attacking the Boa-Constrictor.
To convey an animal like this, several buffaloes and a whole system of cordage were necessary. Night approached; confident in our nooses, we left the place, proposing to return next morning and complete the capture; but we reckoned without our host. ”

“ In one respect all serpents are boa-constrictors, for a very small one has been seen in the act of thus crushing a bird; but the great boa which inhabits tropical America is a giant, which has been known to swallow even a buffalo whole, after it has crushed it to mummy, and broken all its bones. Boas can swim and climb; they will catch fish as they come near the surface of the water, and drag them ashore; or hang by their tails from some forest tree, and thus lie in wait to seize any animal which may be passing. ”