THE SNAKES 239 



marine with a vertically compressed, paddle-like 

 tail. All are deadly to man. Viviparous. Tropical 

 seas of the Eastern Hemisphere — the Indian and 

 Pacific Oceans; one species found in the New 

 World off western coast of Mexico, Central Amer- 

 ica and tropical South America. 

 Subfamily II. Elapince. Twenty-nine genera, containing some of the 

 most deadly known serpents. But one genus — Flaps 

 (the Coral Snakes) in the New World. Among the 

 Old World species are the deadly Cobras and their 

 allies. Elapine snakes are terrestrial or burrowing. 

 They abound in the Malay Archipelago and consti- 

 tute the majority of the ophidian fauna of Australia. 



The River Snakes, family Acrochor&ince, form sev- 

 eral genera of ugly-looking reptiles, most of them living 

 in rivers and harbors of southeastern Asia and Malay- 

 sia; one remarkable exception is found on the Isthmus 

 of Darien, Central America. Among the entirely 

 aquatic forms the body is slightly compressed ; there are 

 no enlarged abdominal plates. One of the unique char- 

 acters, as compared with other snakes (except the marine 

 snakes) is the structure of the scales, which are so small 

 with some as to appear granular, while they lack the 

 usual imbricate (overlapping) arrangement of serpents. 



The Gray River Snake, Chersydrus granulatus, a 

 common species, ranges from southern India to New 

 Guinea. Above and beneath the scalation is granular. 

 The eyes and nostrils are on the top of the head. A full- 

 grown example is three and a half feet long, dull grayish 

 or olive above, paler beneath. Snakes of this kind are 

 to be seen swimming in Manila Bay — sometimes a con- 

 siderable distance at sea. They feed upon fishes. 



The subfamily Colubrince. Here is contained the 

 great majority of snakes. All are entirely harmless, 

 so far as fangs or poison glands are concerned, for all 

 of the species have perfectly solid teeth. Like in all 

 families of reptiles we find species that are vicious, cap- 



