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Webster 1913 Edition
Boa constrictor
Bo′a con-strict′or
.[NL. See
Boa
, and Constrictor
.] (Zool.)
A large and powerful serpent of tropical America, sometimes twenty or thirty feet long. See Illustration in Appendix.
☞ It has a succession of spots, alternately black and yellow, extending along the back. It kills its prey by constriction. The name is also loosely applied to other large serpents which crush their prey, particularly to those of the genus
Python
, found in Asia and Africa.