46 NATURAL SCIENCE. ^^^en. 



The snakes that live in the sea may be referred to four natural 

 groups :— 



1. Aglyphous, harmless: CJiersydriis, one species, inhabiting the 

 mouths of rivers and the coasts of Southern India, Burma, the Malay 

 Peninsula and Archipelago, and New Guinea. 



2. Opisthoglyphous, harmless, to man at any rate : Ceybei'iis, 

 Hypsirhiiia, Fordonia, Cantoria, Hipisics, altogether about a dozen 

 species found in rivers, and on the coasts of India, Burma, the Malay 

 Peninsula and Archipelago, the Papuan Islands, and North Australia. 



3. Elaps-like Proteroglypha : Platuyns, two species. 



4. True Hydrophids : Aipysiinis, Acalyptus, Pelagophis, Hydvus, 

 Eiihydris, Hydrophis, Enhydvina, Distira, about fifty species altogether* 



That PlaUivus is not so absolutely aquatic in its habits as the 

 other sea-snakes, was suspected by Giinther in 1864 (9), and this 

 supposition has been verified by Jagor (9, p. 209), Bavay (i), and 



Fig. 2. — Chersydriis granulatiis, a harmless Marine Snake. (From tlic " Fauna of British India.") 



Hagen (in van Lidth de Jeude, 13). The former traveller found a 

 large specimen on a rocky island in the Philippines, at an elevation 

 of 60 feet above sea-level, and one was obtained by Hagen in the 

 forests of Serdang, Sumatra, at a distance of nearly a day's journey 

 from the sea. It has also been repeatedly observed that Platuyns 

 may be handled with impunity, never attempting to bite, notwith- 

 standing the deadly poison-apparatus of which it is possessed. Its 

 gentle disposition is well known to the colonists of New Caledonia, 

 and the confidence they have in it led to a fatal accident, which is 

 related in an interesting pamphlet by Dr. Forne (7), one of the 

 medical officers at Noumea. A convict, trusting to his experience of 

 Platuyns, handled a sea-snake which afterwards proved to be a 



