Many other (probably nearly all) snakes at maturity are already more than half their final length. Laurence M. Klauber put length at maturity at two thirds the ultimate length for some rattlesnakes, and Charles C. Carpenter's data on Michigan garter and ribbon snakes (Thamnophis) show that the smallest gravid females are more than half as long as the biggest adults. Felix Kopstein states that ``when the snake reaches its maturity it has already reached about its maximal length,'' but goes on to cite the reticulate python as an exception, with maximum length approximately three times that at maturity. It is hard to understand how he concluded that most snakes do not grow appreciably after attaining maturity; he was working with species of Java, so perhaps some tropical snakes are unusual in this respect. Certain individual giants recorded later did fail to show a reasonable difference after maturity, but it is impossible to know whether this is due to captive conditions. Additional records of slow growth have been omitted.

It is possible to make a few generalizations about the six giants themselves. There seems to be a rough correlation between the initial and ultimate lengths, starting with the smallest (boa constrictor) and ending with the largest (anaconda). Data on the former are scanty, but there can be little doubt that the latter is sometimes born at a length greater than that of any of the others, thereby lending support to the belief that the anaconda does, indeed, attain the greatest length. For four of the six (the anaconda and the amethystine python cannot be included for lack of data) there is also a correlation between size at maturity and maximum length, the boa constrictor being the smallest and the Indian python the next in size at the former stage.