“And this History is more easie to be beleeved, because of the Boas Serpent bred in Italy at this day: for we read in Solinus, that when Claudius was Emperour, there was one of them slaine in the Vatican at Rome, in whose belly was found an Infant swallowed whole, and not a bone thereof broken....
The Boas
“The Latines call it Boa, and Bova, because by sucking Cowe’s milke it so encreaseth, that in the end it destroyeth all manner of herdes, Cattell, and Regions.... The Italians doe usually call them, Serpeda de Aqua, a Serpent of the water, and, therefore, all the Learned expound the Greeke word Hydra, for a Boas. Cardan saith, that there are of this kind in the Kingdom of Senega, both without feet and wings, but most properly, as they are now found in Italy, according to these verses:
Boa quidem serpens quem tellus Itala nutrit
Hunc bubulum plures lac enutrire docent.
Which may be englished thus:
The Boas Serpent which Italy doth breede,
Men say, uppon the milke of Cowes doth feede.
“Their fashion is in seeking for their prey among the heardes, to destroy nothing that giveth suck, so long as it will live, but they reserve it alive untill the milk be dryed up, then afterwards they kill and eate it, and so they deale with whole flocks and heards.”