The Baltimore County union., 1881-07-09
SURFEITED WITH A BLANKET.


| Boa-constrictors gorge themselves at
one meal, and then remain torpid for a
week or a fortnight, on even longer
periods. Their powers of abStinance are
only equalled by their powers of glut-
tony. One boa at the Geological Gar
den, London, remained for one year and
ten months without eating anything and
yet was in good condition. An English
magazine tells the story of boa which
died of too much blanket:
One of the largest boas, if not the
largest, ever kept in captivity, was until
lately at the Geological Gardens. 1t
was a female, which was captured at
Ceylon while in torpid state. 1t then
measured about twenty feet long, but
was very thin. Regular diet, however,
and the care taken of it at the Gardens,
where it was sent, soon improved its
condition and at the end of some six
years it had grown to the length of more
than twenty-nine feet, and was as thick
round as mans thigh. The monster
was called "Bess, and to the last mo-
ment of her captivity, or rather of her
life, she remained intolerably vicious
Even her keepers were afraid of her.
Once she rose with such a reckless
plunge against the attendant who was
cleaning her cage as to knock him COM
Pletely out of the opening by which he
had entered, though fortunately not
hurting him, and leaving him ample
strength and time to close the slide be-
fore she could follow him, which she
quite prepared to do. This magnificent
reptile died of surfit of her own blan-
kets. She was casting her skin, and
was, as is always the case at that time,
partially blind, when her meal of rab-
bits was driven into her cage. The first
she seized, crushed, and instantly gorg-
ed. With the others she was less sue
cessful. Warned, perhaps, by the fate
of their companion, they were most
agile in keeping out of the way. The
second one struck at she missed altogeth-
er, but caught her blanket instead,
around the unresisting mass of which
she coiled and twined till she was tired,
and then deliberately proceeded to gorge
it. No effort could get it from her
tenacious jaws, and indeed in her then
savage humor it was not safe to persist
in the attempts. So at her leisure,
though not without considerable exer-
ton, owing, no doubt, to the woolly ma
ture of the texture, she succeeded in
swallowing her rug, equal in size and
thickness to the ordinary covering of a
bed. After this gaStronomic feat she
lay torpid for about a week, when, with
great efforts, she disgorged both the
blanket and the rabbit she had previous
| ly swallowed. Both had evidently dis
agreed with her. After this she seemed
i'll, and refusing food for month and
more, coiled herself up and laid about
seventy eggs. Then, though she was
evidently very i'll, she tried to hatch
them. In all the history of serpents no
boa-constriCtor had ever laid eggs in
captivity. However, after some weeks
watching, the eggs, having been pre-
maturely extruded, became bad; so they
were removed with no little difficulty
from under BesS. After their abstrac-
tion she seemed very restless and refuS-
ed all food even the temptation of live
ducks. generally a quiet irresistible
bait to ailing boas, was taken no notice
of. Nothing could tempt her appetite,
AID her fits of anger rose to perfect fury
when her cage had to be cleaned. In
the end this almost necessary process
had to be given over, but still she re-
fused her meals. After languishing a
few weeks more, she suddenly stretched
herself out and died thus depriving US
of one of the finest, if not the finest,
boas that has ever been seen in captivity,
and also of the chance of rearing up
race of genuine British boas to succeed
her. This accident of her having acci-
dentally gorged her blanket has been
held by many good naturalistS, and not
without reason, to be a'proof that these
reptiles possess little sense of taste or
smell They, however, overlook, or
more likely, have not heard of, the i'm
portant fact that at the time Bess made
this mistake she was casting her skin,
and nearly blind. As a mere matter of
taste, it is very likely indeed that she
did not find much palatable difference
between the flavor of her blanket and
the wool of the young lambs or fur of
the rabbits she was accustomed to swal-
low whole.