OPHIDIAN A CR OB A TS. 219 



dash through the foliage with a scarcely perceptible weight. 

 These are the true acrobats, full of gracile ease and activity. 

 Many are over four feet in length, and not much thicker than 

 a pencil. 



They are found in the hot countries of both hemispheres. 

 The Siamese call some of them 'sunbeams,' from their 

 combination of grace and splendour, and in Brazil some 

 have the brilliant tints of the humming-birds. These little 

 creatures in your hand feel like soft, fine, satin cords endowed 

 with life. 



Dr. Wucherer, writing from Brazil, enthusiastically declared 

 that he was always delighted to find one of them in his garden. 

 He discovered them coiled in a bird's nest, their body of two 

 feet long occupying a space no larger than the hollow of your 

 hand. 'In an instant they dart upwards between the branches 

 and over the leaves, which scarcely bend beneath their weight. 

 A moment more, and you have lost them.' ^ 



Krefft, of Australia, had some of the active snakes, which 

 were confined in an empty room, but one day could not be 

 found. At last they were discovered upon the moulding of a 

 door, nine feet from the floor ! They must have climbed up 

 the smooth wood-work in their own mysterious fashion. 



Ere concluding this chapter, one slight exception to the 

 extremely 'simple' spinal column must be named. This 

 is that certain families, more nearly allied to the lizards, 

 or most far removed from the vipers, have rudiments of 

 pelvic bones, or those which in bipeds connect the legs with 

 the trunk. In a few families there is even a pair of these 

 rudiments externally, though only in the form of a spur or 



^ Letter to Sir Emerson Tennant. 



