SERPENTS. 



355 



naturalists give a family value. Xenopeltis has eight labial plates, and the ventral 

 scales well developed ; it is rei)resented by a single species, X. unicohr, which inha- 

 bits Borneo, Sumatra, Java, the Celebes, and otlier neighboring islands, as well as a 

 portion of British India. In its habits it is nocturnal, and obtains its prey of small 

 mammals by entering their burrows. Being a large and stout animal, sometimes reach- 

 ing the length of four feet, it has little difficulty in overpowering its victims. 



The third family embraces the Ekvcid^, or sand-snakes. Members of this group 

 have a small conical prominence on each side of the vent, somewhat resembling the 

 anal spurs of the Boida^ ; the tail, however, is much shortened, and, instead of being 



Fig. 210. — Eryx jaciUus, saiid-suake. 



used as a prehensile organ, is so developed as to act as a lever, assisting the animal in 

 working its way into the coarse gravel of the barren jilains which it inhabits. Nearly 

 every desert has its representatives of these most interesting reptiles: America has 

 Charina jdumbea. J^ri/.vjacidi(S is restricted to .southern Europe and Persia, while in 

 India is found the harndess JSiu/.rjohnil, which the serpent-charmers so mutilate about 

 the short, rounded tail, as to give the animal the ajipearance of having a posterior 

 head, — a monster regarded with the utmost horror by the ignorant natives. In confine- 

 ment this Indian form constantly remains hid in the gravel of its cage, from which it 

 cannot be induced to appear, e.\eept by offering it the most tempting morsels. In its 

 native haunts, the treeless deserts, the animal is probably creptiscular, as its food — mice 



