54 OPHIDIAN EEPTILES. 



Tjiit the crimson soon fading when a specimen is immersed in 

 spirit. Others are very variable in their colouring, as the African 

 Bucephalus capensis and the Indian Dendrophis picta. 



The next family of DiyiopJndce, or the AYhip Snakes, have a still 

 more slender and elongated body, which has been aptly compared 

 to the thong of a whip. The head is verj^ narrow and long, with 

 tapering snout, ending in a protruded rostral shield, which is some- 

 times modified into a flexible appendage ; eyes of moderate size, 

 and all the Asiatic species have the pupil of the eye horizontally 

 linear, and a long fang-like tooth in the middle of the maxil- 

 lary. The whole of this group are provided with a posterior grooved 

 tooth. They are chiefly nocturnal, and their movements are won- 

 derfully rapid and graceful among the branches of trees. They 

 are numerous almost everywhere in tropical countries. In general 

 the various Whip Snakes are of a bright leaf-green colour, with 

 two white stripes on the belly, so that they are diflicult to discern 

 among the foliage. In the genus Langaha, which is peculiar to 

 Madagascar, the muzzle is elongated into a fleshy appendage, 

 which is covered with small scales, constituting about one-third 

 of the total length of the head. This appendage is dentated in 

 one species {L. crista-galli), and not so in another (L. nasuta). In 

 the Indian genus Passerita the snout is long and pointed, termi- 

 nating in a flexible appendage. The name of Whip Snake is 

 applied by Anglo-Indians to all of the species of Dendrophklce and 

 of Dryiophidce, and the erroneous notion prevails that they are 

 highly venomous, and that they spurt venom into people's eyes. 

 The same is believed in South Africa of the Bucephalus capensis. 

 Even Gordon Gumming asserts that one night a Snake which his 

 servant had tried to kill with his loading-rod flew up at his eye, 

 and " spat poison into it. Immediately," he adds, " I washed it 

 well at the fountain. I endured great pain all night, but next 

 day my eye was all right." * 



* "A Hunter's Life in South Africa," vol. ii. p. 133. Vide also Chapman's 

 "Travels in the Interior of South Africa," vol. ii. p. 34. "VVe have personally 

 captured or assisted in capturing various species of hoth families in India, and it is 

 no easy matter to do so sometimes, from the rapidity of their movements among the 

 branches of trees and bushes; but most assuredly we never saw one of these most 

 beautiful reptiles attempt to dart or to spurt at anybody, and as they have no 

 poison fangs the latter must needs be an error. — Ed. 



