OCR Text |
Show 1894.] OPHIDIA OF TRINIDAD, B.W. I. 505 in water and show very little more than the nostrils and eyes above the surface. Its body is thick aud powerful. A fine young specimen lying before us as w e write is of a dark greenish-brown colour, and its back is ornamented with a series of ovally-shaped bluish-black spots, arranged more or less regularly in pairs, sometimes joining and then exhibiting tbe appearance of an irregular hourglass- shaped stripe across the back ; towards the tail these spots become round. The sides are marked with irregularly proportioned spots, some of them dark with yellow centres. The under surface is mottled without pattern in dark buff and black. The upper surface and sides of the tail are much lighter than the rest of the body. The black mark, so characteristic of all the Boa Constrictors we have ever seen, which extends from the eye backwards to the junction of the lower and upper jaws, is a conspicuous feature in Eunectes murinus. Its length is about 4 feet. This specimen, however, is not a native of Trinidad, and is one of five received from Pedesnales, Venezuela, on the 12th July, 1892. It was captured on the 1st July of the same year. The mother, which was 22 feet long, was on that date observed on the bank of one of the mouths of the Orinoco, giving birth to young ones. She was shot, and the 30 young ones, with the exception of 8, were killed. These eight were sent to Mr. Urich, three dying in transit. W h e n they were received they had still traces of the umbilical cord. In length they were about 20 inches. They were placed in a zinc tank, with a thick branch to climb out upon. They habitually lay on the log, but upon the slightest disturbance slid quietly into the water. On the 22nd July one of them took a mouse, but the killing occurred when the snakes were not under observation. When in water they often anchored themselves by a turn of the tail round the submerged portion of the branch. At other times they would individually roll themselves into a tight ball and float on the surface. On August 1st one of them changed its skin. Eventually all died except the one under observation. O n September 14, upon two mice being thrown into the tank, one of them swam across the wrater. A young Anaconda darted across the wrhole breadth, seized it, and constricted and swallowed it underneath the water. On March 20, 1893, it killed and ate a three-quarter grown common rat. On M a y 10th it killed two one-quarter grown rats. The first was sitting on the edge of the tank, and the snake, instead of seizing it with his teeth as these reptiles usually do, slid up over its back very gently aud quietly, and then threw round it several coils without once biting it. Since then this Anaconda has progressed rapidly and is now in splendid condition. It kills full-grown rats, sometimes launching its head out of the water a distance of 15 inches to seize them. The victims are always dragged back into the water, and there constricted and swallowed. After killing them the snake comes up to take air, but does not do so again until after the prey is swallowed, a process which it assists with a coil of the body round the corpse of the rat. Gorging occupies from 10 minutes to |