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 fiercely. Hornstedt found a quantity of undigested fruits in the 

 stomach of this Serpent! On which Dr. Gunther remarked that 

 no opportunity of making further observations on the habits of this 

 remarkable Snake should be lost. The aquatic member of this 

 family, Chersydrus grauulatus, 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 Bassain 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 Hydrophidcz 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 HomalopsidcE 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 a 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, 



