THE BOA AND ITS PREY, 347

their horses, the Indian said it would have been madness to
have fought with the irritated animal, and they went their way.
This was seven in the morning, and they marked the spot by
notching the trees. Atfour in the afternoon they again passed
that way, and found the boa lying straight upon the ground ;
one of the horns of the roebuck sticking out of a corner of the
mouth, and the other looking as if it would perforate the neck
of the snake ; the tail was still coiled round the tree, and the
middle of the body looked like a nine-gallon cask. A few
blows of the hunting sword about the tail finished the monster ;
but when attacked, it tried to throw up the deer.’’ The boa
has been known to measure upwards of twenty-five feet, though
commonly not exceeding eighteen feet.

The Boa’s Captain Heyland thus describes a boa which

Appetite. was in his possession for some time :—‘‘ The ani-
mal was brought to me early in January, and did not taste food
from that time until the July following. During this period
he generally drank a quart of water daily. The man who
brought him stated, that he had. been seen to eat a hog deer
the day before he was taken. He was allowed to be at liberty
in the grounds about my house. One evening early in July,
hearing a noise, I went out, and discovered that the snake had
left his harbour, under the boards ofa stable where he generally
lay ; and having entered a small shed in which some fowls
were roosting, had swept eleven from the perch, and destroyed
them by pressing them between his folds. Then taking them
one by one, head foremost into his mouth, swallowed the whole
down in twenty minutes. The largest animal that he ate while
in my possession was a calf, which he killed and gorged in
two hours and twenty minutes. He never attacked dogs, cats,
or pigs. Of these last, indeed, he seemed to be in dread, for,
whenever one was presented to him, he retired to a corner, and
coiled himself up, with his head undermost. If fed with ani-
mals not larger than a duck, he ate readily every day ; but
after the meal of a goat, refused food for a month,”’