Show SNAKES AS DOMESTIC ANIMALS They Take the Place of Cats In Brazilian ti Bra-zilian Households One would hardly expect to find reptiles rep-tiles domesticated but they are found tpes in that position at Para not far from j the mouth of the Amazon The stores and warehouses of that city are overrun over-run with vermin of all sorts and mora especially rats To keep down this plage young boas or jiboias are pla ed in the cellars and subsist comfort ably on the plentiful supply of food thus afforded The Brazilians say that they keep down to reasonable limits the rats which would otherwise play havoo with any goods they could get at The fact that boas feed only at somewhat long intervals accounts for the fact that there always seem to be just rats enough for their subsistence while they perform their catlike duties most satisfactorily satis-factorily But as we have said they also act as very efficient watch dogs The skin of the boa Is an article of commerce both in the Brazils and Eater Eat-er Asia In the latter its chief use is to form the heads of banjos and other native musical instruments it being extremely tough and hard In Brazil it is also used at times to make riding boots and forms an excellent substitute for upper leather that of the anaconda being the best As regards re-gards vitality a specimen in my possession pos-session which had attacked a foolish visitor lived for eighteen months with an open hole in its skull about an inch deep caused by a bar being used to beat it off the man i had seized The land boa may be said to have but one enemy apart from man and that curiously one of the most insignificant of insects the ant A certain species peculiar to northern Brazil make annual an-nual pilgrimages from their jungle retreats re-treats to some other point often distant dis-tant many miles and destroy every living creature that stays in their track except man and domestic animals ani-mals or cattle The monkey or the jaguar knows enough to flee before the invading host but the snake does not appear to realize his danger until attacked at-tacked by millions of his tiny but persistent per-sistent foes Pall Mall Budget |