132 



TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



Though little more than two feet long, it is not only 

 fierce, but positively aggressive, while its poison is so 

 active that a fowl dies about two minutes after being 

 bitten. Two or three species of vipers of slender form 

 and adapted for tree life are also found in Africa. 



FIG 34. 



THE RHINOCEROS VIPER. 



The colubrine section of serpents (B) contains the 

 great majority of the species which compose the order, 

 including the commonest harmless snakes of Europe and 

 North America, such as the black snake, the corn snake, 

 the milk snake, and the chicken snake. The genus to 

 which the common ringed snake of England belongs, 

 ranges throughout the temperate region of the northern 

 hemisphere. Other kinds there are which are very 



