SERPENTS. 393 



couiiter:ii-t the effects of its poison. Trimeresurus (including Hcrias, and Megcera), 

 embraces those vipers which, from tlieir green color and prehensile tails, arc fitted for 

 an arboreal life. They are provided, as are the remaining genera of the sub-order, 

 with a small pit in front of the eye, which indicates the lachrymal fossa of the Amer- 

 ican Crotalidie, of which they are the Old World representatives. The members of the 

 present genus are naturally of a sluggish disposition, remaining for hours at a time 

 resting along some branch, which they resemble so closely in color as to attract no 

 attention until they have made their presence known, either by a warning hiss, or by 

 immediately biting. Though their ordinary small size generally prevents the bite 

 from proving dangerous, some of the larger specimens may inflict wounds which re- 

 sult in death. Ordinarily, however, the symptoms, though severe, are confined to 

 nausea and fever, seldom enduring for any long period. The pain and swelling ha\ing 

 subsided, the neighborhood of the wound becomes black and mortifies, and is finally 

 thrown off, after which the patient soon recovers his former strength. The animals 

 ordinarily feed on birds and mammals ; other ophidians as well as lizards being 

 rejected. 



Trintereswrus trigonocephalus is a good representative of the genus. It is an inhab- 

 itant of Ceylon, where it leads an arboreal life, and reaches, when adult, the length 

 of thirty-one inclies, of \\hich the prehensile tail is about one sixth. The color is 

 green, with a network of black strij)es on the head, which is produced backwards as 

 a median dorsal line, sending alternate lateral branches to the sides. The lower sur- 

 face is jaale green, marbled with blackish posteriorly. 



PeliopeJor has but a single representative, P. mucrolopis^ an animal inhabiting the 

 Anamallay mountains, and reaching a length of twenty-one inches. It has a large 

 pit in the loreal region, the body with twelve series of large, keeled scales, and the 

 head with small, imbricate scales. Its color is of a uniform green, brighter below, 

 with lateral lines of bright yellow. 



Calloselasma'xs also represented by a single sjiecies. It has sniooth scales, the head 

 protected above by cervical plates of the normal number ; and the tail, wliich is not 

 prehensile, terminated by a long sjune-like scale. C. rhodostoma inhabits Java and 

 Siam. Though only attaining a length of three feet, a single specimen has been 

 known to cause tlie death of two men in five minutes. 



Hypnale nepta, the only re]iresentative of its genus, is found in southern India and 

 Ceylon, where it is known as the carawala and is greatly dreaded, though its poison 

 does not prove fatal until it has been in the system for several days, there being there- 

 fore every hoj^e, provided the proper remedies are only applied in time. Like the 

 other viperine snakes, it is viviparous, the young, five inches in length, having been 

 dissected from the female. The animal has the shields of the snout scale-like, while 

 the other cervical shields are normal. 



We now come to those Solenoglyphs which are distinctively Ne^v World, and are 

 included under the head Bothrophera, the several genera of which have not only the 

 peculiarities of structure already mentioned in the introductory remarks to the sub- 

 order, but also the following : The general form of the body is stout, and the large, 

 flat, triangular head well se]iarated from tlie body, which latter is either terminated by 

 a series of so-called rattles, or may bo of the ordinary cylindrical form ; the ]iuj)il 

 is elliptical, its longer axis being vertical ; between the eye and the nostril is a decj) 

 pit, which characterizes the group, though some ophidians of the eastern hemis))here 

 have a somewhat similar depression. The veuoni glands are behind the eye, lying 



