COLUBEID^. 49 



some coils of the body round or over it, and commence to swallow it 

 only after it has been smothered, or at least exhausted ; but the 

 NatricirMB swallow their prey immediately after they have seized it. 



Of the sub-family Coronellinte, one species of the typical genus 

 Coronella is widely diffused over Europe, and has only of late 

 years been recognised as an inhabitant of the British Islands, 

 the Coronella austriaca. Another, C. girondica, occurs in Italy. 

 Others are found in Africa, America, and Australia. The 

 C. austriaca has somewhat the appearance of the common Adder, 

 for which it is often mistaken ; but it is non-venemous, though 

 rather a fierce reptile, which. bites and holds on ; and as it occurs 

 in Malta (where no venemous species is known to exist), it is 

 doubtless the supposed Yiper which seized upon the apostle 

 Paul. Several other genera are recognised. 



Of the Colubrince, Rhineckis scalaris, Coluber cesculapii, C. qua- 

 drilineatus, Elaphis quater-radiatus, and three species of Zamenis 

 inhabit Europe : there are five of Coluber in North America, and 

 the well-known " Black Snake " of the Anglo-Americans is the 

 Coryphodon constrictor. Other species of CorypJiodon or Ptyas 

 inhabit South-eastern Asia, as the different " Rat Snakes " of 

 Anglo- Indians, of which Ptyas mucosus is particularly common in 

 India, where it is encouraged by reasonable people as a destroyer 

 of the far more troublesome Brown Hat (Mus decumanus). 



The Dryadinae are chiefly American, and do not call for par- 

 ticular further remark ; but the Natricince are very numerous, and 

 there are three species in Europe of its most prominent genus, 

 Tropidonolus viz. T. natrix, T. hydrus, and T. viperinus. Dr. 

 Giinther gives as many as twenty-one species of this genus as in- 

 habitants of the Indian region alone, and there is reason to believe 

 that that number is far from being complete. Others inhabit North 

 America and North-western Australia, and some generic groups 

 have been detached that are not very conspicuously separable.] 



The Ringed Snake, Tropidonotus natrix, is often found in fine 

 seasons near human habitations. It deposits its eggs, which are 

 fifteen to twenty in number, commonly in dunghills, in one agglu- 

 tinated mass. Exposed to the air, these eggs soon shrivel and dry, 

 and the embryos within them perish. The Ringed Snakes are also 

 found near rivers and meadows, by the side of water-courses, into 



E 



