328 REPTILES OF THE WORLD 



nounced markings, the ground color is rich olive, thickly 

 peppered with black. The head is bluish, with black 

 dots and ornamented in the center with a sooty-black, 

 arrow-shaped blotch pointing forward; the horns are 

 yellow. 



No more wonderfully beautiful combination of colors 

 can be imagined. In crawling, when the muscles of the 

 lower sides are in play, carrying the skin backward and 

 forward, the effect is like that of a gigantic and par- 

 ticularly gaudy caterpillar. Coiled in its cage, the rep- 

 tile from which the description was taken, looked posi- 

 tively artificial. Unfortunately, these splendid colors 

 are soon lost. By frequently entering the water, the 

 snake acquires a thin coating of grime and the pattern 

 becomes dingy. Note the difference between the fron- 

 tispiece of this work and one of the plate illustrations. 

 They represent one and the same snake. The plate illus- 

 tration is that of the reptile some ten days before shed- 

 ding the skin, when it appeared in its handsome coat 

 like a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis. 



Four feet is the average length of an adult Rhinoceros 

 Viper. The habitat is tropical West Africa. 



Much smaller African vipers are two species of the 

 northern, desert regions, forming the genus Cerastes. 

 The maximum length is about two and a half feet. 



The Horned Viper or Asp, C. comutus, has been 

 alleged by some historians to be the serpent figuring in 

 the suicide of Cleopatra; others assert the beautiful 

 queen's weird instrument of destruction to have been the 

 Egyptian cobra. 



It is impossible to mistake the Horned Viper. It is 

 a typical creature of the desert, of a pale, sandy hue 

 with obscure markings. Over each ej^e is a sharp, up- 

 right spine. Examples of the species are delicate as 



