SNAKES 



531 



conditions of life. Of the python it is recorded 

 that the mother coils herself around the laid eggs 

 and broods over them, the temperature within the 

 coils rising as high as 96 F. 



Classification. Snakes may be thus classified : 



BUB-ORDER I. Opoterodontia ( =TyphIopidse) : the simplest 

 and smallest snakes, sometimes smaller than earthworms, 

 occurring in most warm countries as burrowers in the soil. 

 The mouth is narrow and not distensible ; the eyes are small 

 and half-hidden ; and the skull, besides being much less mobile 

 In its parts than is usual in snakes, is unique in having trans- 

 verse palatine bones which meet or nearly meet in the base, 

 in the absence of a ' transverse bone,' and in the freedom of 

 the pterygoids from the quadrate ; only one jaw, either the 

 upper or the lower, bears teeth. They are not venomous. 

 Most of the forms belong to the genus Typhlops represented 

 in America, Africa, India, Australia, and by one species in 

 south-eastern Europe. 



SUB-ORDER II. Colubrifonnia : mostly harmless snakes without 

 any fangs (Aglrphodontia), or with some of the posterior 

 maxillary teeth grooved and fang-like (Opisthoglyphia). Ex- 

 amples : the Pythons ( Pythonidie), the Boas (Boidae), the 

 Onus or Ringed Snake ( Tropldonotu* natrix ), the Smooth 

 Snake (Coronetla Itxvis), the Tree-snakes ( Dendrophidue and 

 Dryophidae). 



SUB-ORDER III. Golubriformia venenosi : poisonous snakes with 

 permanently erect fangs, succeeded by solid teeth ( Protero- 

 glyphia). Examples : Cobras , Naja , Uamadryas (Ophio- 

 phagus), Coral-snakes (Elaps), Sea-snakes (Hydrophidse). 



BUR-ORDER IV. Vi veri formes : poisonous snakes with a few 

 erectile maxillary teeth specialised as fangs (Solenoglyphia). 

 Examples: Vipers (Viperidse) and Rattlesnakes (Crotalidae). 



Distribution. The number of species is certainly 

 above 1000 and is sometimes estimated at about 

 1800. They are represented in most parts of the 

 world, abundantly in the tropics, commonly in 

 temperate countries, dwindling towards the poles. 

 They are absent from New Zealand and most 

 Oceanic islands, and it is a proverbial saying that 

 'there are no snakes in Iceland.' In Ireland also 

 they are unrepresented, except by casual importa- 

 tions. 



The Grass or Ringed Snake ( Tropidonotus 

 natrix) and the poisonous Viper or Adder ( Pelias 

 or Vipera 6cnw) are the two common kinds of 

 snake found in Britain. There is indeed only one 

 other species, tlie Smooth Snake (Coronella Items), 

 and this is of rare occurrence. The smooth snake 

 and the ringed snake are non-poisonous Colubrine 

 snakes ; the viper is a small representative of a 

 very venomous family. As the viper is discussed 

 in a separate article, and as the smooth snake is 

 restricted to a few parts of the south of England, 

 we need only descrilie the ringed snake. It some- 

 times attains a length of 3 or 4 feet, is very 

 fond of water, and feeds chiefly on frogs, small fish, 

 young birds, mice, and other small animals. Its 

 colours ore beautiful usually brownish gray with 

 a green tinge above, dull pale bluish beneath. In 

 rammer it is fond of ha-sking among the long grass; 

 in winter it hiliernates in some sheltered nook in 

 company with several of its fellows. Unlike the 

 adder, the ringed snake is oviparous, laying 16-20 

 eggs in some well-sunned spot. It is common in 

 some parts of Britain. These three species also 

 form the Ophidian fauna of Scandinavia, Denmark, 

 Holland, and Belgium ; but there are over a dozen 

 other European secies, of which one of the com- 

 monest is the Asp ( I V//i'm nspis). 



The North American Ophidia include a large 

 nnmber of Colubrine snakes and about a score of 

 pit vi|>era or rattlesnakes. Among the Colubrine 

 forms are the water-snakes (Tropidonotus), the 

 black snakes and coachwhip snakes of the genus 

 Coluber, the nine-snakes ( Pityopliis), species of 

 Elaphis, the king-snakes (Ophibolus), the ring- 

 necked snakes (Diadophis), and so on. Besides 

 the rattlesnakm proper (Crotalus) there are related 

 genera, such an Anetotrodon, the copperheads and 

 mocassins. And outside the two families of Colu- 

 bridir- arid Crotalidn-. there are representatives of 

 the burrowing Typhlopidse, of the lioa-like Erycidie, 

 and of the venomous coral-snakes (Elapidae) the 



harlequin snake (Elaps fulvus) being a well-known 

 representative of the last. 



The Colubridde form the largest and most cosmo- 

 politan of Ophidian families, being abundantly 

 represented in all the great regions except Aus- 

 tralia, where the venomous Elapidte predominate. 

 ' The tree-snakes proper (Dendrophidfe) are found 

 in all the tropical regions ; the nocturnal tree- 

 snakes (Dipsauidie) and the arboreal whip-snakes 

 (Dryophid;e) are also essentially tropical, but 

 thev are either wholly, or almost wholly, wanting 

 in Australia ' ( Heilprm ). 



The Pythons and Boas are distinctively tropical 

 snakes : the Pythons in Africa, India, Malaya, 

 Australia ; the Boas in tropical America. Among 

 the most important venomous snakes of India are 

 the following : the Cobra (Naja tripudians), the 

 Hamadryas or Sunkerchor (Ophiophagus elaps}, 

 the Krait (Bungarits cosruleus), and the Sankni 

 (B. fasciatxs), various species of Callophis, the 

 Chain Viper or 'Bora Siah Chunder" (Daboia 

 russellii), Echis carinata, various species of Tri- 

 meresurus, and the sea-snakes (Hydrophis, &c.). 



Zoological Position. It may be granted that 

 snakes are more nearly allied to lizards than to 

 other living reptiles, out the affinities are not 

 close, nor does palaeontology help us much, for 

 fossil remains of Ophidia are scarce. ' Only one 

 species, the Simoliophis rochebntni, from the Upper 

 Cretaceous deposits of the Charente, France, is 

 known to antedate the Tertiary period.' 'Whether 

 or not the snakes are in part the modified descend- 

 ants of the extinct lacertilian Pythonomprphs, to 

 which they seem to approximate in certain points 

 of structure, still remains to be determined.' 



Superstitions about Snakes. As snakes fill most 

 men with fear, which is the prolific mother of 

 fiction, hundreds of strange superstitions surround 

 these animals. Born from the soil, they lick the 

 dust for their food ; powerful indeed, they are 

 killed by spiders, and cannot stand before crabs ; 

 venomous many of them, they are poisoned by 

 human saliva, and flee from the shadow of the 

 ash or the odour of rosemary ; their maximum size 

 has been stated at a mile. It is not surprising that 

 many peoples should have found in the serpent ' a 

 divine hieroglyph of the demoniac power of the 

 earth of the entire earthly nature,' or even a 

 symbol of the principle of evil. 'As the bird,' 

 Ruskin says, ' is the clothed power of the air, so 

 this is the clothed power of the dust ; as the bird 

 is the symbol of the spirit of life, so this of the 

 grasp and sting of death.' For serpent wojship, 

 see SERPENTS. 



We cannot wonder that the ingenuity of despair 

 should have sought out many strange antidotes to 

 the poison of serpents. Various kinds of herbs, 

 portions of the snake's own body, a diet of ' anti- 

 pathetic' animals, spells, charms, and amulets 

 have been often resorted to, often of course with 

 successful results, for the bite is not always fatal, 

 and confidence is the best of tonics ; often of course 

 uselessly when the Fates were cruel. Among the 

 most famous, and for the most part quite useless, 

 ' cures ' for snake-bite is the application of a 

 'snake-stone.' Although the nature of this so- 

 called ' stone ' is sometimes kept secret by the 

 native quacks who prepare it, the substance is 

 often a piece of charred bone, and its only possible 

 efficacy lies in its power of absorbing the poisoned 

 blood from the wound to which it is applied. But 

 the results of actual experiments with snake-stones 

 are entirely against any belief in their virtue. The 

 same name is sometimes given to Ammonites 

 (q.v.), on the idea that they are petrified snakes. 

 Another kind of snake-stone or adder-stone, also 

 called ovum anguinum, adder-gem, and dmidical 

 bead, was carried about as a miscellaneous charm 



