THE COLUBRINE SNAKES 



2561 



ties, The essential feature of the skull in the present group is the production of 

 the postfrontal bone above the cavity of the eye; while, as a secondary feature, the 

 scales of the body overlap one another but very slightly, if at all. The Javan wart 

 snake, which is the sole representative of the genus, is characterized by the absence 

 of lower shields, by the head being covered with uniform granules, and by the very 

 slight compression of the body. The head is rather short and broad, with the muz- 

 zle wider than long, and the small eyes directly forward; while the nostrils are 

 placed close together on the tip of the muzzle. The nearly cylindrical tail is short 

 and prehensile. The color is brown above and yellowish on the sides; the young 

 having large irregular dark brown spots, which coalesce into bands on the back, and 

 gradually tend to disappear in the adult. In size this snake may measure upward 



JAVAN WART SNAKE. 



(One-eighth natural size.) 



of eight feet. It is distributed over the Malay Peninsula, Java, and New Guinea; 

 and, although it has been stated to be terrestrial, modern observations indicate that 

 it is essentially aquatic, seldom even leaving the water, and feeding upon fish and 

 frogs. A female in the possession of Cantor gave birth to twenty-seven young ones 

 in less than half an hour, which were active and bit fiercely as soon as they came 

 into the world. 



An allied genus, represented by a single species ( Chersydrus granulatus) , rang- 

 ing from Southern India to New Guinea, differs by the marked compression of the 

 body and tail, and thus closely resembles the sea snakes of the front-fanged series 

 of the family, and likewise resembles them in habits, frequenting the mouth of riv- 

 ers and the coast from Southern India to New Guinea, and being often found far 

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