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Show 1899.] REPTILES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA AND SIAM. 655 pariah-dogs, vultures, kites, and crows, are the regular scavengers of Bangkok). In M a y 1897, a python, 2820 m m . (or 9 ft. 3 in.) in length, was found in the Wang Luang (King's Palace); I was told it had swallowed a pet cat and then had become too fat to get away through the hole by which it had entered. On opening the snake, I found a full-grown Siamese cat with a bell hung round its neck. In January 1898 another, 2438 m m . (or 8 ft.) in length, was caught alive in the W a n g N a (2nd King's Palace). The activity, muscular strength, and more particularly the power with which it can strike out with its head, of a python even of this comparatively very small size is astonishing, and, together with the lovely sheen of colours which flashes over the bold patterns on its scales, is difficult to realize when you have seen these snakes only in captivity in Europe. Size. A friend told m e that when the wooden floor of his stables in Bangkok was being repaired during 1897, in a cavity underneath a large python was found and killed, which measured over 6*09 metres (or 20 feet) in total length. One killed at Matang, Perak, the skin of which measures about 6 metres, is in the possession of Lt.-Col. Froude Walker, C.M.G., who told me the python had been known to kill and eat pigs. Another killed at Simpang (Larut district), Perak, measuring 6*7 metres (or 22 feet), is now in the Taiping Museum. Dr. Wilson, Senior Medical Officer in Johore, told me of a python killed at Muar about 1889, which was 6*85 metres (or 2 2 | feet) long and 228 m m . (or 9 inches) in diameter. And Mr. L. Wray, jun., has measured one killed near Taiping, Perak, about 1896, which was in the flesh 8*2 metres (or 27 feet) long, and when skinned and stretched 10 metres (or 33 feet). Cantor writes : " In 1844 one was killed at the foot of Pinang, which a gentleman informed m e measured more than 30 feet." Hab. Burma, Siam, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Banka, Sipora (Mentawei Is.), Great Natuna Is., Borneo, Celebes, Flores, Amboina, Ternate, N . Ceram, Timor Laut, and Philippines. 97. PYTHON MOLURUS (L.). Python molurus, Blgr. Cat. Snakes, i. p. 87. The common Python of India is included in the list of Malay Peninsula reptiles, so far as I am aware, solely on the authority of Stoliczka (J. A, S. B. 1870, p. 205), who mentions having " seen several specimens obtained in the Wellesley province." I have not heard of its occurrence in Siam. In recording localities of animals, such as this python, which form part of the usual stock-in-trade of itinerant native jugglers, it behoves collectors to be very careful and to make all possible enquiries regarding them : for instance, when in Bangkok I once was brought a live Python molurus, but found by questioning that it had been brought there by an Indian conjurer from Bombay. Hab. India, Ceylon, South China, Malay Peninsula, Java, Celebes. |
