SCALED REPTILES 



fauna. All of them doubtless on account of the immunity from attack conferred 

 >by their poisonous character are remarkable for the beauty of their coloration. 



The coral snake and its allies constitute a genus well represented in the warmer 

 regions of America, but also occurring sparingly in South Africa. They are small, 

 .although rather long and plump serpents, with the body cylindrical, the head flat- 

 tened and scarcely differentiated from the neck, and the tail short. The small eye 

 lias a circular pupil, the mouth is narrow, and the jaws admit of but slight dilata- 

 tion. Superiorly, the body is clothed with equal-sized, smooth scales, arranged in 

 fifteen rows; while inferiorly the body shields are rounded, the anal one being un- 

 divided, and the shields beneath the tail arranged in a double series. Behind the 

 fangs, the teeth are all small. One of the handsomest members of a beautiful group 



CORAL SNAKE. 



(Two-thirds natural size.) 



is the coral snake, which inhabits a large part of South America, and also occurs 

 in the West Indies. Attaining a length of from two feet to two and one-fourth 

 feet, this snake has its ground color a brilliant cinnabar red, with a special lustre on 

 the under parts. On the body this red color is divided into sections of equal length 

 by broad black rings, bordered by more or less distinct greenish white margins; all 

 the red and greenish portions showing black spots on the tips of the scales. The 

 front of the head, as far back as the hinder end of the frontal shields, is bluish 

 black; at the back of the parietal shields there commences a greenish white cross 

 band, running behind the eye, and occupying the whole of the lower jaw; and after 

 this comes a black neck ring, followed by one of the red spaces of the body. As a 

 rule, instead of being red, the tail has alternations of black and whitish rings, with 



