46 NATURAL SCIENCE. march, 



The snakes that live in the sea may be referred to four natural 

 groups :— 



1. Aglyphous, harmless: Cher sydrus, one. species, inhabiting the 

 mouths of rivers and the coasts of Southern India, Burma, the Malay 

 Peninsula and Archipelago, and New Guinea. 



2. Opisthoglyphous, harmless, to man at any rate : Ceybeyus, 

 Hypsirhina, Fovdonia, Cantoyia, Hipisies, altogether about a dozen 

 species found in rivers, and on the coasts of India, Burma, the Malay 

 Peninsula and Archipelago, the Papuan Islands, and North Australia. 



3. Elaps-like Proteroglypha : Platuriis, two species. 



4. True Hydrophids : Aipysurus, Acalyptus, Pelagophis, Hydyus, 

 Enhydris, Hydrophis, Enhydrina, Distira, about fifty species altogether- 



That Platunis is not so absolutely aquatic in its habits as the 

 other sea-snakes, was suspected by Giinther in 1864 (g), and this 

 supposition has been verified by Jagor (9, p, 209), Bavay (i), and 



Fig. 2.—Chersydrus granulatics, a harmless Marine Snake. (From the "Fauna of British India.") 



Hagen (in van Lidth de Jeude, 13). The former traveller found a 

 large specimen on a rocky island in the Philippines, at an elevation 

 of 60 feet above sea-level, and one was obtained by Hagen in the 

 forests of Serdang, Sumatra, at a distance of nearly a day's journey 

 from the sea. It has also been repeatedly observed that Platuyus 

 may be handled with impunity, never attempting to bite, notwith- 

 standing the deadly poison-apparatus of which it is possessed. Its 

 gentle disposition is well known to the colonists of New Caledonia, 

 and the confidence they have in it led to a fatal accident, which is 

 related in an interesting pamphlet by Dr. Forne (7), one of the 

 medical officers at Noumea. A convict, trusting to his experience of 

 Platurus, handled a sea-snake which afterwards proved to be a 



