THE COLU BRINE SNAKES 



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scales arranged in thirteen rows, and there are two rows of shields on the lower 

 aspect of the tail. 



These snakes are represented by some thirty species, their headquarters being 

 the islands of Java, Sumatra, and Borneo. THe figured species (Calamaria linncei) 

 is from Java. They are all of small size, frequently not exceeding a foot in length; 

 and they are in the habit of hiding themselves among stones, beneath fallen tree- 

 trunks, or in grass. Their small dimensions, together with the relatively narrow 

 cleft of the mouth, and a want of dilatability in the throat and body, indicate that 

 they do not prey upon other reptiles. Gentle and harmless themselves, these snakes 

 are often attacked and killed by craits and other venomous members of their own 

 tribe. 



JAVAN PYGMY SNAKE. 



(Natural size.) 



On account of the well-known European smooth snake (Coronella 

 loevis) being included among them, we mention as a second genus of 

 this group the sling snakes, of which there are about twenty known species ranging 

 over Europe, Western Asia, Africa, and America, while one (C. brachyura) occurs 

 in India. They belong to a group of genera in which the whole of the lower teeth 

 are nearly equal in length; while they are specially distinguished by the presence of 

 from twelve to twenty teeth in the hinder upper jawbone, which increase in size 

 toward the back of the series. The head is short, and scarcely distinct from the 

 neck; the eye being rather- small, with a round pupil, and the head shields normal. 

 The body is cylindrical, and covered with smooth scales arranged in from fifteen to 

 twenty-five rows, and furnished with pits at their tips; the tail is of moderate length; 



