316 THE NATURAL HISTORY REYIEW. 



We have now closed the long array of innocuous Colubriform 

 Ophidians, and come to the Yenomous division of the same order, 

 which are furnished with an erect immoveable grooved or perforated 

 poison-tooth, situated in front of the maxillary bone. Two families 

 of this sub -order are represented in the Indian Fauna, the Elapidee 

 and the Hydrophiidse. To the former group belongs the well-known 

 Cobra, in reality one of the most deadly of known Ophidians, 

 although not belonging to the sub-order structurally most adapted 

 for inflicting poisonous wounds. Of the latter group, as we have 

 already stated, Dr. Giinther gives a complete monographic account. 

 So little known is this peculiar family of Snakes, and so indifferent 

 are the accounts given of it by former authors, that Dr. Giinther was 

 forced to adopt the plan of working out all the species anew, in 

 order to determine the Indian forms with exactitude. The result 

 has been that we have to thank him for a most valuable contribution 

 to our knowledge of the Ophidians. 



The Hydrophiidse are " Sea-serpents," in the truest sense of the 

 word, passing their whole lives in the salt water, and feeding on 

 fishes. They inhabit the tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific 

 Oceans, from the coast of Madagascar to the isthmus of Panama, 

 but are unknown in the Atlantic. Dr. Giinther recognises 44 species 

 of this family belonging to 8 different genera. 



The third and last sub-order of Ophidians, which Dr. Giinther 

 now enters upon, are the truly poisonous Snakes provided with a per- 

 forated fang on the maxillary bone and a special organism adapted 

 for the delivery of deadly wounds. Of the two families of the 

 Order, one, the Crotalidse, is common to Asia and America, the 

 finest and largest forms of it occurring only in the New World, but 

 five genera (containing 17 species) being found within the Asiatic 

 area treated of by Dr. Giinther. The Yiperidse, which are confined to 

 the Old World, are not nearly so numerous within the Indian 

 region, only two species being recognized by our author, both of 

 which however are common in the peninsula of India. One of 

 these, Dahoia, is a well-marked Indian type— the other, JEchis, an 

 African form — the Indian species being barely distinguishable from 

 the MMs arenicola of the Sahara. With them Dr. Giinther con- 

 cludes his account of the true Eeptilia of India, which number no 

 less than 474 species. 



The subclass of Batrachiaus, which our author now treats of, is 



