226 HOODED OR SPECTACLE SNAKE. 



light brown colour, and marked along the back with a 

 series of diamond-shaped spots, joined at the points. The 

 belly is black. 



Common Snake. No animals can be more peaceful 

 and harmless than the Common Snakes. They are not, 

 in any respect whatever, injurious to mankind. Their 

 places of concealment are generally bushes, banks, or 

 dunghills in moist places. In the latter they oftentimes 

 lay their eggs, in a connected chain, from twelve to 

 twenty in number, of a whitish colour, and each covered 

 with a membrane resembling parchment. Snakes prey 

 on frogs, insects, worms, and mice ; and, during the 

 winter season, conceal themselves and become torpid, 

 in banks of hedges, and under the roots of trees. They 

 change their skins about twice in the year. It is pos- 

 sible to render these animals, in some measure, tame and 

 domestic. 



The Common Snakes are larger than the Viper. The 

 colour of their back and sides is dusky or brown. The 

 middle of the back is marked with two rows of small black 

 spots, from which extend a great number of lines of spots 

 crossing the sides. The belly is dusky, and the scales on 

 the sides bluish-white. On each side of the neck there i 

 a white or yellowish spot. 



Hooded or Spectacle Snake. Although these are 

 known to be amongst the most poisonous of all the 

 serpent order, yet the inhabitants of India, where they 

 are chiefly found, carry them about in baskets, make 

 them dance to the sound of a flageolet, and perform a 

 variety of whimsical tricks. But it is to be observed, 

 that they are first deprived of their fangs, which renders 

 them incapable of inflicting any wound. When irritated* 



