76 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
Three or more of the species inhabiting India and. Burmah are 
of a beautiful leaf-green colour, which changes to dull blue after long 
immersion in spirit. The commonest of them, Z: carinatus, varies 
remarkably in colouring in the Andaman and Nicobar islands; if, 
indeed, the species be quite the same. These grow to over three 
feet inlength. The kindred genus, P. e/topelor, is founded on a single 
species inhabiting the mountains of Southern India, P. macrolepis, 
which is remarkable for the very large scales with which its head 
and body are covered. The Lachesis, with two species, is another 
kindred genus in South America, in which the end of the tail has 
four rows of scales underneath. The Calloselasma rhodostoma is a 
very formidable reptile of this same series, which inhabits the Malay 
countries. It has a remarkably broad head, and grows to three feet 
or more in length. Dr. Giinther states that “it is one of the most 
beautiful and most dangerous of venomous snakes. Feeding on 
frogs, it frequents grassy plains, and approaches gardens and human 
dwellings. Kuhl was eyewitness to a case where two men, bitten 
by one and the same snake, expired five minutes after.” Another 
Malayan species is known as the Afropos acouba. ‘The genus Halomys 
is characteristic of the fauna of Central Asia, the species being found 
in Tartary, on the northern side of the Himalayas, in China, in 
Japan, and in Formosa. One of them occurs in the Western Hima- 
laya, at an altitude of 9,000 feet, and another has been referred to 
this genus from the mountains of Southern India. The “ carawalla” 
of Ceylon (yfnale nepa) is likewise found on the mountains of 
Southern India. It is a small species, but a good deal dreaded, 
“although,” remarks Dr. Giinther, “its bite is but exceptionally fatal 
to man, and in such cases death does not occur before the lapse of 
some days. ‘There is therefore some hope of restoring the patient 
by a timely application of proper remedies.” Its crown is more 
shielded than is usual with Snakes of this family and it varies much 
in colouring. . 
The rest of the Cvrofalide are American, and consist of the 
famous Rattlesnakes and their immediate kindred. In the genus 
Cenchris the tail ends with a spine, and the tip of the tail has several 
rows of scales beneath. The well-known Copperhead (C. con- 
tortrix) belongs to this genus, and the Black Water Viper (C. 
piscivorus). ‘he last has bred repeatedly in the London Zoological 
Gardens, and is rather a large species, of very aquatic propensities. 
“The Copperhead,” according to Dekay, “is a vicious reptile, and 
its venom is justly dreaded, being considered as deadly as that of 
the Rattlesnake; and an instance is recorded in which a horse, 
