OPHIDIANS. - 519 



had favorable opportunities of studying the peculiarities of these 

 serpents, captured by him in fishing nets, refers to the case of a 

 British officer, who &quot;died within an hour or two after the bite of 

 a serpent caught at sea;&quot; and also to numerous experiments of 

 his own, &quot;in which fowl, fish, and other animals, invariably died 

 within a few minutes after the bite had been inflicted.&quot; We 

 refer to these facts, because it has been stated, that &quot;the Marine 

 Serpents are harmless.&quot; 



Rev. John Williams, in his &quot;Narrative of Missionary Enter- 

 prises in the South Sea Islands,&quot; says : &quot; That in the Samoa 

 group are water snakes, some of them beautifully marked with 

 longitudinal stripes of yellow and black, and others with rings 

 alternately white and black.&quot; He adds, &quot;the natives esteem 

 both the Land and Sea Snakes as good food.&quot; 



The MARINE SNAKES, in common with the BOID^E, have nar 

 row, elongated scales on the belly, nearly resembling those on 

 the back; the ventral shields are narrow, hexagonal, or band- 

 like, the eyes and nostrils look upwards, the latter usually 

 placed in the middle of a shield, with a slit or groove on its outer 

 edge ; the fangs are of moderate size, and intermixed with the. 

 maxillary teeth ; the pupil is small and round. 



Of the species with compressed teeth, or true Marine Snakes, 

 are the TWO-COLORED PELAMYS, Pelamys bicolor, with hexagonal 

 scales, found in the Pacific Ocean ; and the BANDED SEA-SNAKE, 

 Chersydrus, (Gr. chersudros, an amphibious serpent,)/asczatas, 

 (Lat. banded,) or C. granulatus, found in meadows. (For figure 

 of which see Chart.) 



FOUETH FAMILY. VIPERS. Sub-order VIPERINA, (venomous 

 snakes.) 



Viperida, (Lat. vipera, a viper.) . 



This family contains nine genera and twenty species, found 

 chiefly in Asia and Africa; none of them have been discovered 

 on the American continent. Unlike the Colubrine Snakes, these 

 have few if any teeth in the upper jaw ; but they have, in com 

 mon with the Crotalidae, glands secreting a poisonous fluid, which, 

 on occasion, they discharge through their fangs in front. These 

 glands are connected with muscles which are capable of exerting 

 a powerful compression, and thus of ejecting the venom with 

 great force into a wound. The shields of the muzzle in this 

 family, are broad and band-like; the scales keeled, except in 

 the genus Acanthophis, (Gr. spiny-serpent ;) the tail is short 

 and tapering. 



