The greatest of all the boas is the water-boa (Euaccics murinns), best known as the anacon da. Although the home of this huge serpent is wholly within the valleys of the Amazon and Ori noco, the name was borrowed from the Portuguese name of a Ceylonese python, and fixed by envier in 1817; its most widespread Brazilian name is `sucuriuba,' or simply ',amain.' It is far more aquatic in its habits than any other big Ameri can snake, spending a large part of the time in the water, to which its structure is adapted, the nostrils being very small, placed vertically in the top of the heavily scaled nose, and closable by valves. Thus it can swim safely under water, and need only push the merest point of its head above the surface in order to take breath. lts eves, also. are elevated, prominent, and SO placed that it can see both ahead and downward (into the water), which most snakes cannot do. Al though, like the others, it hangs from trees or lies coiled on the bank waiting to seize anything man ageable that may come in its way. it also sinks its body in the water and waits at chosen places near the bank until some animal comes down to drink, when it seizes it by the nose with a grip from which beasts rarely escape before they are dragged down, enfolded, and drowned in its crushing embrace. One of the Brazilian names is 'deer-swallower,' and stories are told of its killing and eating cattle, horses, and jaguars; but these must be regarded as fanciful tales, in spired by the same imagination which says it reaches a length of from 50 to 80 feet. The largest specimen actually measured is that (a stuffed skin) in the British Museum, which is 29 feet long; it is not probable that this is often much exceeded, while the average length is, no doubt, nearer 20 than 30 feet. A snake of the largest
size could certainly kill, and might swallow, one of the small Brazilian deer, at any rate a horn less doe or fawn; but the more ordinary food consists of rodents, from the capybara down, peccaries, birds and their eggs, and fishes and reptiles, including their own kind. This serpent is rich green in color and marked with round blackish blotches, which often run together, as shown in the accompanying illustration.
Not much is known as to the reproduction of boas, most of which seem to produce their young alive, while some are known to lay eggs. The rather contradictory experience on this point, derived from observation of captive specimens, is given in Miss Hopley's Snakes. All the boas are hardy and long-lived, and those mentioned above are to be seen in various zoological gar dens, where they usually thrive well if pro tected from cold and intelligently treated, and often come to know their keepers and be very friendly with them. Certain species are con stantly tamed and kept as pets among the vil lagers of Brazil and Central America; and occa sionally completely tamed specimens have been known in other parts of the world, not only among performers in animal shows, but in pri ate, of which the most famous recent example is the boa 'Cleo,' kept by Mr. and Mrs. Mann in London, and described by Frank Buckland in Land and and elsewhere about 1877. For special information, consult: Moles and Ulrich, "Serpents of Trinidad," in Proc. Zool. Soc. of London, 1894, page 499 et seq.; liopley, Snakes (London, 1882) ; and Gosse, A Naturalist's So journ in Jamaica (London, 1851).