634 OPHIDIA CHAP. 



Southern India, and often creeps into the houses. It lives 

 chiefly on rats, lizards, and snakes. 



Callophis. With only thirteen rows of smooth scales. The 

 head is small, not distinct from the neck. The small eye has a 

 round pupil. The short tail has two ventral rows of scales. 

 The whole body is cylindrical. Several small species, one or two 

 feet in length, in South-Eastern Asia. C. macclellandi in India 

 and Indo-China is reddish brown above, yellow below, with 

 regular, equidistant, black, light-edged cross-bands or rings. Total 

 length up to 2 feet. 



Doliopliis differs from Callophis mainly by the enormously 

 developed poison-glands which, instead of being restricted to the 

 head, extend along the anterior third of the body, gradually 

 thickening, and terminating in front of the heart with club- 

 shaped ends. Owing to the extension of these glands, which 

 can be felt through the skin as thickenings at the end of the 

 first third of the body, the heart has been shifted farther 

 back than in any other snake. Several species in Indo-China 

 and in the Malay Islands, D. intestinalis with many colour- 

 variations. 



Australia suffers from an abundance of Elapine snakes, of 

 which we will mention only the three commonest. 



PseudecJiis e.g. Ps. porphyriaceus, the " Black Snake " of 

 Australia, has seventeen rows of smooth scales on the body, a few 

 more on the neck, which however is not, or is only slightly, 

 dilated. A few of the sub -caudal scales are undivided, the rest 

 are paired. The head is distinct from the neck; the pupil is 

 round. Total length up to 5 or 6 feet. The general colour 

 above is black, with the outer row of scales red at the base ; 

 the ventral scales are red with black edges. The females are 

 generally more brown than black, and are therefore sometimes 

 known as " Brown Adders." They live on small mammals, birds, 

 lizards and other snakes. 



Notechis scutatus s. Hoplocephalus curtus, the " Tiger Snake," 

 has rather small eyes with round pupils. The head is distinct 

 from the cylindrical body, which "is covered with fifteen to nine- 

 teen rows of smooth scales. The sub-caudals are single. The 

 head of this variably coloured snake is mostly black, the body 

 olive brown with dark cross-bands ; towards the tail the color- 

 ation becomes more uniformly blackish. The under parts are pale 



