﻿212 COLUBRIDtE 



Europe, Vtpera ammodytes is said to be the principal 

 enemy of Ccelopeltis, and the two snakes are conse- 

 quently seldom found together in the same locality. 



Many experiments have been made on the action 

 of the poison of this Opisthoglyph. Peracca and 

 Deregibus, as well as, later, Phisalix, found a striking 

 similarity with the symptoms of Cobra poison in 

 their experiments on small animals, the suspension 

 of the respiration occurring in a few minutes, the 

 blood being otherwise unaffected. It has been 

 stated by some authors that Ccelopeltis poison has 

 little or no action on man, but a French zoologist, 

 E. Taton-Baulmont, having been bitten in the index- 

 finger by a four-foot-long specimen at Algiers, the 

 swelling extended within thirty hours up to the 

 shoulder, and was accompanied by fever and nervous 

 troubles. As a rule, however, the bite of this snake 

 has no poisonous effect on man, from the fact that 

 the fangs conveying the venom are situated so far 

 back in the mouth as not to come into action. 



Reproduction. — According to Werner, the eggs, 

 four to twelve in number, are laid in July, and 

 measure 2 inches in length and J inch in width. 



Genus MACROPROTODON, Guichenot 



Maxillary teeth few and very unequal in size, fourth 

 and fifth or fifth and sixth enlarged and followed by 

 an interspace, the two last teeth fang-like and grooved, 

 situated just behind the eye ; sixth mandibular tooth 



