G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 201 



G. nodosus and G. ocellatus. These interesting remains will 

 be described in full by Professor Marsh in an early number 

 of the American Journal of Science. 



SCARCITY OF POISONOUS SERPENTS IN TROPICAL AMERICA. 



We are in the habit of supposing that tropical lands are 

 necessarily infested with poisonous serpents of varied species 

 and in great numbers, and are led to consider this supposed 

 condition as one of the chief drawbacks to residence or travel 

 in those regions. This may be the case as it regards Asia, 

 and also in a few of the West India Islands, but it certainly 

 does not apply to Central America, where, with an immense 

 multiplicity of species, those of a venomous nature are com- 

 paratively rare ; in fact, much scarcer than in the Southern 

 United States. A naturalist, relating his recent experiences 

 in Guatemala, which is a fair type of the region generally in 

 this respect, remarks that one may be in the country a long 

 time without seeing a snake of any kind, and much less fre- 

 quently a poisonous one. The latter indeed are, perhaps, not 

 actually rare on the coast, but they avoid the presence of 

 man, and, at any rate, move about but little in the daytime. 

 A species of rattlesnake is the most abundant. The writer 

 also remarks that the poison of the rattlesnake appears to be 

 much less deadly than it is farther north, as quite a number 

 of cases of bites came under his notice, but he never heard 

 of one resulting in death. IT C, December, 1870, 443. 



POISON SERPENTS IN INDIA. 



It was stated some time ago by one of the India papers 

 that a great many deaths were occurring in that country 

 from the bites of poisonous serpents, and statistics were 

 given on this subject which were discredited by various writ- 

 ers. We learn, however, by official records, that the number 

 of persons who have died from this cause maybe safely esti- 

 mated at 40,000 per annum. The low condition of the treas- 

 ury is given as the reason which prevents the government 

 from renewing its former offer of reward for killing these ser- 

 penis. A list of the bounties paid for destroying this class 

 of noxious animals in a very small district showed that poi- 

 sonous serpents were brought .in at the rate of 1200 a day, 

 and in the course of a couple of months the payments, at the 



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