62 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
and on the palate. These serpents are viviparous. One of them, 
Acrochordus javanicus, inhabits Java and the Malayan peninsula, 
where it is considered rare. It grows to a length of eight feet, and 
its habits are terrene. The late Dr. Cantor justly compares its 
physiognomy to that of a thorough-bred bull-dog ; a female in his 
possession brought forth no fewer than twenty-seven young in the 
course of about twenty-five minutes. At birth they were active, and 
bit fierceiy. Hornstedt found a quantity of undigested fruits in the 
stomach of this Serpent! upon which Dr. Giinther remarks that 
no opportunity of making further observations on the habits of this 
remarkable Snake should be lost. The aquatic member of this 
family, Chersydrus granulatus, is to be found from the coasts of 
India to New Guinea and the Philippine Islands. Sometimes it is 
met with at a distance of three or four miles from the shore. Mr. W. 
Theobald remarks that it is plentiful in the Bassein River (in British 
Burmah), in salt water below Gnaputau, and, with various other Sea 
Snakes, is frequently swept by the tide into the fishing baskets of the 
natives. The ebb-tide, running like a sluice, sweeps various fishes, 
crustaceans, snakes, and even porpoises occasionally, into the broad 
mouths of those baskets, where they are at once jammed into a mass 
at the narrow end of the creel. “The Chersydrus,” he adds, “is 
more nearly connected with the Aydrophide than with the next 
family, being as essentially aquatic as any of the former, to which, . 
save from its wanting the poison-gland, it might be appropriately 
referred. Indeed, it has been erroneously asserted by some authors 
to be venomous.” 
The Homalopside are an extensive family of Snakes, of thoroughly 
aquatic habits, which are only occasionally found on the margins of 
rivers; several of them enter the sea, and in some parts of their 
organisation they approximate to the true marine Snakes. They may 
be easily recognised by the position of the nostrils on the top of the 
snout, which enables them to breathe by raising only 2 very small 
portion of the head out of the water, an arrangement which is like- 
wise seen in the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the sea snakes, and 
other aquatic animals. Many of them have a distinctly prehensile 
tail, by means of which they hold on to projecting objects. Their 
food consists either entirely of fishes, or (some species) of crusta- 
ceans. All appear to be viviparous, and the act of parturition is 
performed in the water. Not any of them attain a larger size 
than three or four feet in length. In captivity they refuse to feed. 
All the Asiatic species of this family have a grooved fang at the 
hinder extremity of the maxillary bone. The species are numerous, 
