Anaconda, a huge water serpent of South America. It is allied to the boa constrictor, but is much larger. A specimen in the New York Zoological Park measures eighteen feet six inches. A stuffed specimen in the British Museum is twenty-nine feet long. The boa is a tree climbing serpent; the anaconda lives in the rivers. It is found chiefly in the basins of the Orinoco and Amazon. The anaconda is not venomous. Its usual food is the capybara, the tapir, and water birds. It is quite capable of making away with a deer, if it can catch one drinking at the water's edge or attempting to swim a river. The term anaconda may be applied to any large snake that throws its folds about its prey and crushes it. See PYTHON; BOA CONSTRICTOR; SNAKE.