Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Read Online Free

extraordinarily dangerous powers.
    The Basilisk is a brilliant green serpent that may reach up to fifty feet in length. The male has a scarlet plume upon its head. It has exceptionally venomous fangs but its most dangerous means
of attack is the gaze of its large yellow eyes. Anyone looking directly into these will suffer instant death.
    If the food source is sufficient (the Basilisk will eat all mammals and birds and most reptiles), the serpent may attain a very great age. Herpo the Foul’s Basilisk is believed to have
lived for close on nine hundred years.
    The creation of Basilisks has been illegal since medieval times, although the practice is easily concealed by simply removing the chicken egg from beneath the toad when the Department for the
Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures comes to call. However, since Basilisks are uncontrollable except by Parselmouths, they are as dangerous to most Dark wizards as to anybody else, and
there have been no recorded sightings of Basilisks in Britain for at least four hundred years.

    B ILLYWIG
    M.O.M. Classification: XXX

    The Billywig is an insect native to Australia. It is around half an inch long and a vivid sapphire blue, although its speed is such that it is rarely noticed by Muggles and
often not by wizards until they have been stung. The Billywig’s wings are attached to the top of its head and are rotated very fast so that it spins as it flies. At the bottom of the body is
a long thin sting. Those who have been stung by a Billywig suffer giddiness followed by levitation. Generations of young Australian witches and wizards have attempted to catch Billywigs and provoke
them into stinging in order to enjoy these side effects, though too many stings may cause the victim to hover uncontrollably for days on end, and where there is a severe allergic reaction,
permanent floating may ensue. Dried Billywig stings are used in several potions and are believed to be a component in the popular sweet Fizzing Whizbees.

    B OWTRUCKLE
    M.O.M. Classification: XX
    The Bowtruckle is a tree-guardian creature found mainly in the west of England, southern Germany, and certain Scandinavian forests. It is immensely difficult to spot, being
small (maximum eight inches in height) and apparently made of bark and twigs with two small brown eyes.
    The Bowtruckle, which eats insects, is a peaceable and intensely shy creature but if the tree in which it lives is threatened, it has been known to leap down upon the woodcutter or tree-surgeon
attempting to harm its home and gouge at their eyes with its long, sharp fingers. An offering of woodlice will placate the Bowtruckle long enough to let a witch or wizard remove wand-wood from its
tree.
    B UNDIMUN
    M.O.M. Classification: XXX
    Bundimuns are found worldwide. Skilled at creeping under floorboards and behind skirting boards, they infest houses. The presence of a Bundimun is usually announced by a foul
stench of decay. The Bundimun oozes a secretion which rots away the very foundations of the dwelling in which it is found.
    The Bundimun at rest resembles a patch of greenish fungus with eyes, though when alarmed it will scuttle away on its numerous spindly legs. It feeds on dirt. Scouring charms will rid a house of
an infestation of Bundimuns, though if they have been allowed to grow too large, the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures (Pest Sub-Division) should be contacted before
the house collapses. Diluted Bundimun secretion is used in certain magical cleaning fluids.
    C ENTAUR
    M.O.M. Classification: XXXX
5
    The centaur has a human head, torso, and arms joined to a horse’s body which may be any of several colours. Being intelligent and capable of speech, it should not strictly
speaking be termed a beast, but by its own request it has been classified as such by the Ministry of Magic (see the Introduction to this book).
    The centaur is forest-dwelling. Centaurs are believed to have originated in Greece, though