i6o REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



branes of the mouth, followed hy vomiting. During 

 the night the patient's condition became alarming, 

 and on the following day he was conveyed to the hospital 

 in a state of utter collapse. He rapidly sank, and on the 

 evening of the third day after being bitten his condition 

 was so critical that death was expected before the morning. 

 He lingered on in this state, bordering between life and 

 death, till about the sixth day, when a slight improvement 

 set in, and from this time onwards his condition rapidly 

 improved ; it was not until more than three weeks later 

 that he was discharged from the hospital, and over three 

 months from the date of the bite before all effects dis- 

 appeared. Mr. Fitz-Simmons, who subsequently made 

 numerous experiments on the effects of the bite of the 

 Boomslang on fowls and ducks, found that the bite of this 

 snake will kill birds just as rapidly as does that of the South 

 African Cobra. 



The Boomslang, as its Dutch name implies, is chiefly 

 arboreal, feeding on lizards, birds, and their eggs. It 

 varies much in colour, being green, olive, brown, or black 

 above ; the young are speckled with darker or lighter 

 spots. 



Leptodira has a very wide distribution, being found in 

 Tropical and South Africa and Tropical America, north- 

 wards to Texas. The head is most distinct from the neck ; 

 the eye is very large, with a vertically elliptic pupil. The 

 body is somewhat compressed. The maxillary teeth 

 gradually and feebly increase in length ; they are followed, 

 after an interspace, by a pair of enlarged fangs. 



The Annulated Snake, L. annulata, of the West Indies 

 and Tropical South America, frequently arrives in this 



