MARINE SNAKES. 



47 



Hydrophid [Distiva oyiiata, var. ocellata) ; bitten in the hand, the man 

 died nine hours later. 



The Hydrophids, on the other hand, are most irascible, and not 

 known ever to leave the water ; their movements, when out of that 

 element, being very awkward. In their attempts to bite they will 

 even turn round to wound their own bodies, as observed by Cantor 

 (4), this being partly due to the fact that they are nearly blind in the 

 daytime. S. Kneeland (12) relates his experience with some Hydro- 

 phids in Manilla Bay : " We were anchored about three miles from 

 land, in water twenty feet deep. To while away the time we fished, 

 but either our tackle was too clumsy or our bait unsuitable, for we 

 had not even a bite all day. As night came on we kept our lines 

 in the water merely for experiment's sake, without the remotest 



Fig. 3. — Enhydrina valakadien, a poisonous Marine Snake. (From the " Fauna of British India.") 



idea of catching anything. The sea was calm, and the darkness 

 intense. Between 9 and 10 p.m. we caught six water snakes 

 on hooks of large size, baited with salt pork, and resting quietly 

 on the bottom. They were of about the same size, 3 feet long, .... 

 and very savage, snapping at everything within their range." 

 That their bite is very dangerous, in some cases even fatal to man, 

 has been established by the experiments of Russell (14), Cantor (4), 

 Fayrer (6), and others. The largest size attained by any of them is 

 about twelve feet. 



The home of the marine snakes, whatever their affinities, is in the 

 Indian and Western South Pacific Oceans, being found in abundance 

 from the Persian Gulf, along the coasts of India, Burma, and the 

 Malay Archipelago to North Australia and New Caledonia. Some 



