BLI:NJI PAT. BENG. Corchorus olitorius. BLYTH, EDWARD, for many years Curator of the Museum of the Bengal Asiatic Society, the ablest zoologist who has over resided in India; author of numerous learned articles on the main. orals, birds, fishes, and reptiles of Eastern and Southern Asia, mostly in the 111. As. Trans., vols. xiv., xv., i. 280:—Fauna India), Drafts for, ibid. 345 ; On three Indian Species of Bat, ibid. 1841, vol. x. 971 ; Now Species of Pica from the. Mina layas, ibid. 186; Description of Caprolagus, a new Genus of Leporino Mammalia, ibid. 247 ; Supplement to the Monograph of the Indian and Malayan Species of Cuculidte, or Birds of the Cuckoo Family, ibid. vol. xi. 898, 1095, et seq.; 1843, vol. xii. 240; Notes on Various Indian and Malayan Birds, ibid. 1842, vol. xi. 160; On the l'redatory and Sanguivorous Habits of the Bat of the Genus Megaderma, with some Remarks on the Bloodsucking Propensities of other Vespertilion him, ibid.; Monograph of a species of Lynx, ibid., but described as Tapozous longimanus by General Hardwicke, Descriptive Notices of, ibid. 784 ; On the Leitrichane Bird of the Sub-Hima layas, by H. B. Hodgson, with additions and annotations ; A Synopsis of the Indian Peri and of the Indian Fringillidaa, ibid. 1844, vol. xiii. 923 ; Catalogue of Birds.
BO or Bodhi, also Bodhi-druma, a tree sacred to a Buddha or Tirthankara. See Bo Tree.
BOA or Boo, sometimes called Poam by the people of Malabar, has wood much like the timber called in Ceylon Palari or Palls and Irambu, or, as known by the English term, iron wood. It is a strong, heavy wood, and is con sidered durable. It grows from 20 to 30 feet high, and from 12 to 30 inches in diameter.— Edye, ill. and C.
BOA. Linn. A genus of innocuous serpents, of the family Pythonidm, order °phial, sub order Innoeuus. The genus, as defined by Lin nxits, belongs to the New World; but in India the term Boa and Boa-constrictor is applied to species of Python in the tropical parts of South-Eastern Asia, some of which are of considerable size, and able to kill large four-footed animals. A female
python 20 feet long, captured in Ceylon when in a torpid state, was taken to tho London zoological Gardens, and before the end of six years it had grown to 29 feet in length, and was as thick round as a man's thigh. It was very vicious at all times, but at length destroyed itself by swal lowing a blanket. The pythons on the western coast of India and in Ceylon aro amongst the largest met with. Tho organisation of the boas and pythons is directed to the slaughter of their prey by compression, and to this end aro given to them enormous dimensions and power of muscle. When a boa dashes at the prey, it generally preserves its hold of the tree by a coil or two towards the tail ; it seizes with widespread jaws, and throws with rapidity the folds of its body round and round its victim. Tightening, and crushing rib and limb within their embrace, these folds relax not until life is pressed out. The serpent then pauses for a few moments. Soon, however, it begins to touch the carcase gently with its muzzle; the jaws again and again dilate, until the skin is strained so tight that every scale is isolated. Then grasp following upon grasp gradually and irresistibly engulfs the body, which, in its passage through the folds, has been compressed and attenuated into the most convenient possible form for this final opera I tion. Death inflickal by such overwhelming is almost instantaneous, in small animals especially. BOAD or Bed, a tributtaarry state in Orissa, with an area, including the Kandh-Slal., of 2041 square miles, and a population in 1872 of The aboriginal tribal tire the Pan, Kandh, Goala, bud, and Keut. Bad, the chief town. is in lat. 29° 20" N., and long. 84" 21'41' E. Thu reigning family arc Kshatriya Hindus.