THE SNAKES 347 



When daylight dawns, a day of smoke and stifling 

 gases, the life is gone. Where in the thickets lurked 

 the snake and its associates is a drifting waste of gray 

 dust and scoria? from which rises here and there a 

 burned and blackened tree. Pelee mounts grandly in 

 the vapors. The giant rests, but a dull plume of smoke 

 floats from the crater, following the wind. Thus did 

 Nature's forces turn against her creatures — against 

 mankind as well. 



• ••••••••• 



The smaller New World species of Lachesis are 

 mostly arboreal, having a prehensile tail. They are 

 commonly known as Palm Vipers and frequently come 

 North in the fruit steamers, hidden in bunches of bana- 

 nas. The most frequent stowaway is the Horned 

 Palm Viper, L. schlegelii, with graceful, slender body, 

 but an extremely wicked-looking, heart-shaped head; 

 the stubby tail is of great value as a prehensile append- 

 age. 



Quite distinctive is the scalation of the head. Over 

 each eye is the usual supraocular plate, but this is sep- 

 arated from the eye by several smaller shields, generally 

 two or three, that are erect and horn-like. The colors 

 are prettily arranged, usually green, thickly powdered 

 with black and showing at regular intervals blotches or 

 spots of red or pink, bordered with olive. Curious yel- 

 low, albanistic specimens are quite common. The length 

 of an adult is about two feet ; a specimen this size has the 

 tail two inches long, the diameter of the body about 

 three-quarters of an inch and the width of the head one 

 and an eighth inches — the latter showing a greater width 

 than the diameter of the thickest part of the body. 

 Central America generally, southward to Colombia, 

 and Ecuador, forms the habitat. 



