CLASS REPTILIA 



565 



only to small animals, but its fangs are capable of injecting a 

 venom more virulent than that of the rattlesnake. 



The cobra-de-capello, Xaja tri pud inns (Fig. 462), of India, 

 China, and the Malay Archipelago, is the most notorious relative 

 of the harlequin snake. The cobra is very vicious; when dis- 

 turbed it raises the anterior part of the body from the ground, 

 spreads its neck (hood) with a hiss, and strikes at once. In 

 India the bare-legged natives are 

 killed in large numbers by cobras; 

 for example, in 1908, 21,880 were 

 killed by snake bites, most of them 

 probably the bites of this species. 

 There are nine other species of 

 cobras seven confined to Africa, 

 one in the Philippine Islands, and 

 one, the king cobra, inhabiting the 

 same countries as the cobra-de- 

 capello. 



Family VIPERID.E. - -THICK- 

 BODIED POISONOUS SNAKES. --The 

 viperine snakes are often termed 

 solenoglyphs to distinguish them 

 from the three series of the family COLUBRID^E. Their fangs 

 are tubular, firmly attached to the movable maxillary bones, 

 and folded flat against the roof of the mouth when the jaws 

 are closed. The two subfamilies of viperine snakes are the 

 VIPERINE, or true vipers, of the Old World, and the CROTALIN.E, 

 or pit-vipers, of both the New World and Old World. 



The pit-vipers are easily recognized by the presence of a deep 

 pit on each side of the head between the eye and the nostril. 

 The function of this pit is not known. There are four genera 

 and about seventy species. Those found in the United States 

 are the copperhead, water-moccasin, and fifteen species of 

 rattlesnakes. 



The water-moccasin, Agkistrodon pisciwrus (Fig. 463), occurs 



FIG. 462. The cobra, Naja 

 tripudians. (From Gadow.) 



