The largest of all snakes, the boa-constrictor, belongs to the same sub-order as the python, and would be harmless if it were not for its rabid appetite, which tempts it to devour every living thing which it sees, while its great strength enables it to master almost any prey. Thus it will wind about a man, an ox, or a horse, and crush such victims to death, and feed upon them at leisure. The boas and most of the pythons are natives of hot countries. A man who had long been a sailor gave me an account of the capture of a boa-constrictor, which is now in the London Zoological Garden. This sailor wanted to go to the interior of the island of Java, to see the country. When he landed in Java he met an English gentleman, Sir Henry ----, who was fond of travel and hunting, and had come to Java intending to capture some wild animals to present to the Regent’s Park Zoological Garden. A rajah of Java had invited Sir Henry to go to his bungalow in the central part of the island, and have a big hunt. Sir Henry offered to take the sailor along to aid him. They caught a tiger and several other beasts, and I will describe to you the way in which they captured a boa-constrictor. They found a place in the forest, where the crushed grass and brush showed that a boa frequently passed by. Then at evening, they fastened a goat to a tree that its crying might attract the big snake. For two or three nights something carried off the goat, or it managed to escape. Finally they chained the goat. The hunters were watching and waiting some way off. At last they heard cries from the goat, which cries the natives said meant that a snake was coming. Then all was still, and they said that meant that the boa was eating the goat. Accordingly they hurried to the spot. There, stretched out his full length, lay a huge boa; he had swallowed the goat, which distended the front part of his body so that he would have had hard work to move, even if he had not been held by the chain attached to the swallowed goat. This chain was fastened to a plane tree, and held the boa fast, as he could not disgorge the goat. The boa does not dismember or chew its food; it crushes it, and swallows it whole. Then it lies quiet, and waits for the mass to digest. Thus the boa was captured by the chain down its throat. Several strong natives now leaped upon the monster’s tail and held it down. Others laid a long, thick bamboo on each side of the boa, from head to tail. Then with strong, new ropes they wound and bound the snake to the bamboos until he was stiffly imprisoned. Next they released the chain from the tree, and left the end dangling from the snake’s greedy mouth. Then a dozen or more strong natives picked up the bamboo sticks, with the great serpent between them, and marched off to the coast, where a cage had been prepared for it on an English ship.