SERPE.XTS. 



375 



ae many as twenty-seven young being born at a time. Very few of these animals have 

 ever been taken, tiiough they are occasionally seen on the island of Java at Penang 

 or Singajiore. The savage appearance presented by its sullen eyes, swollen jaws, and 

 short, thick body, is not such as would court a more intimate acquaintance. Allied 

 to the jireceding and also inhabiting the East Indies is Chersydrus granulatus, 

 Avhich has the hinder part of the body and tail slightly compressed, and its lateral sur- 

 face increased by an inferior fold of skin along the abdomen and tail. The scales aro 



M^M^m&§z 



- Acrochordus jt 



unprovided with the tubercles and spines of the previous genera, though both forms 

 are alike in having no ventral scutes. This, as might be inferred from its structure, is 

 a purely aquatic reptile, resembling in its habits the Hydrophida?, though it lacks the 

 prolonged processes of the caudal vertebrae, and its bite is perfectly harmless. V. 

 fframdatus is found along the shores of the Eastern archipelago. New Guinea, and the 

 Philippines, as well as on the east coast of the Indies, sometimes being found several 



