4 VENOMS 



poisonous, but only slightly so. They are not dangerous to man. 

 Their venom merely serves to paralyse their prey before deglutition 

 takes place ; it does not afford them an effective means of defence 

 or attack. 



All the HovialopsincB are aquatic ; they bring forth their young 

 in the water, and are met v^ith commonly in the Indian Ocean, 

 starting from Bombay, and especially in the Bay of Bengal, on 

 the shores of Indo-China and Southern China, from Singapore to 

 Formosa, in the Dutch Indies, in Borneo, the Philippines, New 

 Guinea and the Papuan Archipelago, and as far as the north of 

 Australia. 



The Dipsa.domorphincB comprise a large number of highly 

 cosmopolitan genera and species, found in all the regions of the 

 earth except the northerly portions of the Northern Hemisphere. 

 None of these reptiles is capable of causing serious casualties among 

 human beings, owing to the peculiarly defective arrangement of 

 their poison-apparatus. I therefore do not think it worth while 

 to linger here over their description. 



The Elachistodontincr, are of even less importance ; at the 

 present time only two species are known, both of small size and 

 confined to Bengal. 



The Proteroglypha group of the Coluhridce is of much greater 

 interest to us, since all the snakes belonging to it are armed with 

 powerful fangs, in front of the upper maxillaries. These fangs, 

 which are provided with a channel in the shape of a deep groove, 

 communicate at the base with the efferent duct of poison glands, 

 which are often of very large size. 



The group is composed of two Suh-families : — 



A. The Hijdrophiince (sea-snakes), provided with a flattened 

 oar-shaped tail. The body is more or less laterally compressed ; 

 the eyes are usually small, with circular pupils ; the scales of the 

 nose have two notches on the upper labial border. 



The normal habitat of all the members of this sub-family is the 



