ACROCHOBDUS 1 15 



Series 0. Proterogltpiia. — Anterior maxillary teeth grooved 



or ' perforated '. Poisonous. 

 Snbfam. Hydro pliiuue. — Tail strongly compressed. Marine. 

 Siibfam. Elcqmice. — Tail cylindrical. Terrestrial. 



Subfamily ACROCHORDINtE. 



Si/nopsis of the Genera. 



I. No ventral shields. 



Body scarcely compressed Acrochoedus, p. 115. 



Body and tail compressed, with a fold below . . Chersydrus, p. 116. 



II. Ventral shields well developed Xenodermus, p. 117. 



Genus ACROCHORDUS. 



Horustedt, Abh. Ac. Stoekh. viii, p. 307 (1787). 



Teeth subequal, about 15 in each maxillary. Head not distinct 

 from neck, covered with granular juxtaposed scales ; nostrils close 

 together on the top of the snout ; eye very small, with vertically 

 subelliptic pupil. Body stout, slightly compressed ; scales very 

 small, tubercular, spiuose; no ventral shields. Tail short, sub- 

 cylindrical, prehensile. 



A single species. 



120. Acrochordus javanicus. 



Hornst. 1. c. pi. xii ; Cantor, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xvi, p. 905 

 (1847) ; Giiuth. Kept. Brit. Ind. p. 336 (1864) ; Bouleug. Cat. Sn. 

 i, p. 173 (1893) ; S. Flower, P. Z. S. 1899, p. 658. 



Malay name, Ular helalei gajaJi (" elephant's trunk snake "). 



Head-scales very small, rough, larger and flat towards the 

 mouth ; no shields of any kind. About 120 to 150 scales round 

 the body, dorsals largest. Brown or olive above, more or less 

 distinctly spotted, striped, or marbled with black ; lighter beneath. 



Grows to 8 feet. 



Siam, Malay Peninsula (Penang, Selangor, Pahang, Patani, 

 Singapore), Borneo, Java, iS'ew Guinea. 



A purely aquatic snake, frequenting ditches and canals. Horn- 

 stedt found a quantity of undigested fruits in the stomach of a 

 specimen from Java. Cantor, who justly compares its physi- 

 ognomy to that of a bull-dog, obser\ed a female in his possession 

 to bring forth 27 young ones, which showed themselves very 

 active, and bit fiercely. Plower describes the adult as very power- 

 ful, twisting round one's arm with a grasp like that of a python. 

 In Siam it is valued for its skin, which is used for making the 

 drum-heads of native drums, though that of the python is in 

 greater request. 



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