762 BOA 1866); Das moderne Volkerreeht ah Rechts- buch mit Erlauterungen (Nordlingen, 1868 ; French translation, by Lardy, Paris, 1869) ; Das moderne Volkerreeht in dem Framosisch- Deutechen Kriege von 1870 (Heidelberg, 1871) ; and Das Deutsche Staatsworterbuch, in con- junction with Brater (11 vols., 1857-'70). BOA; a large serpent of the family boid(f, order ophidia. This family is known by the following characters : The under part of the body and tail is covered with transverse bands, each of a single piece, narrow, scaly, and often six-sided ; there is neither spur nor rattle at the tip of the tail ; the hinder limbs, formed of several bones, are developed into an ex- serted horny spine or hook on each side of the vent ; the body compressed, larger toward the middle ; the tail short and prehensile ; the pupil oblong and erect; and scales small, at least on the hinder part of the head. They are the largest of serpents, and though without venom, their immense muscular power enables them to crush within their folds large animals, which they first lubricate with saliva, and then swallow whole by their enormously dilatable jaws and gullet. It appears that serpents of this family once existed in Italy, Greece, and the Mediterranean regions of Africa. Vir- gil's description of the death of Laocoon and his two sons, as well as the magnificent marble group which either furnished the subject for his description, or was suggested to the sculptor by it, and again the account in the 24th idyl of Theocritus of the serpents sent by Juno to destroy the infant Hercules in his cradle, all show that the artists were perfectly acquainted with the action of constricting serpents. The narrative by Valerius Maximus of the gigantic serpent which had its lair by the waters of the river Bagradas (Mejerda), not far from Utica, or the present site of Tunis, and kept the whole army of Regulus at bay, killing many of his soldiers, until it was at length destroyed by stones cast from the engines used in the siege of cities, is familiar to most readers. Pliny adds that the serpents called bom in Italy con- firm this ; for that they grow so large that one killed on the Vaticanhill in the reign of Claudius had the entire body of an infant in its belly. Suetonius mentions the exhibition of a serpent of 50 cubits (75 feet) in length, in front of the Comitium. These reptiles, which are now found in tropical countries only, have been distinguished into 25 genera, under which are arranged, according to characteristic differ- ences, the serpents in the British museum. Among these genera, most of which contain several species, are the following : I. Python, two species, distinguished from the boas by placing its eggs in groups, and covering them with its body, a habit which had been doubted, but has been verified from observation of the proceedings of a python in the jardin des plantes at Paris : the ular saioad of Hindo- stan, Ceylon, and Borneo, and the rock snake of Java. The former is one of the largest and most terrible of all these monsters, said to grow to 30 ft. in length, and proportionally stout, and to be able to manage a full-grown buffalo. Female Python incubating. There have been living specimens of both these snakes in the zoological gardens, Regent's park, London. II. ffortulia, three species, all of South Africa: the Natal rock snake, 25 ft. long, and as large as the body of a stout man ; the Guinea rock snake, of which there was a Natal Rock Snake (Hortulia Natalensis). specimen in the Regent's park ; and the royal rock snake, supposed to weigh over 100 Ibs. III. Boa, four species, peculiar to Mexico, Honduras, Santa Lucia, and Peru. This is the genus which has given the general name to the whole family of great constricting serpents. The skin of one of these serpents, of the first species, boa constrictor, the tlicoatl and tema- cuilcahuilia of the Mexicans, and the object of their serpent worship, is preserved in the British museum. The proper boa is decided by Ouvier not to be a native of any portion of the old world. IV. Eunectes, one species, a native of tropical America ; this is the anaconda, a name said to be of Ceylonese origin, which, like that of boa, has been vulgarly given to the whole family. (See ANACONDA.) This is the most terrible class of destructive reptiles in ex-
