304 TROPICAL NATURE 



shine they more resemble some strange insects than members 

 of the reptile tribe. 



Snakes 



Snakes are, fortunately, not so abundant or so obtrusive as 

 lizards, or the tropics would be scarcely habitable. At first, 

 indeed, the traveller is disposed to wonder that he does not see 

 more of them, but he will soon find out that there are plenty ; 

 and, if he is possessed by the usual horror or dislike of them, 

 he may think there are too many. In the equatorial zone 

 snakes are less troublesome than in the drier parts of the 

 tropics, although they are probably more numerous and 

 more varied. This is because the country is naturally a 

 vast forest, and the snakes being all adapted to a forest 

 life do not as a rule frequent gardens and come into houses 

 as in India and Australia, where they are accustomed to open 

 and arid places. One cannot traverse the forest, however, 

 without soon coming upon them. The slender green whip- 

 snakes glide among the foliage, and may often be touched 

 before they are seen. The ease and rapidity with which 

 these snakes pass through bushes, almost without disturbing 

 a leaf, is very curious. More dangerous are the green vipers, 

 which lie coiled motionless upon foliage, where their colour 

 renders it difficult to see them. The writer has often come 

 upon them while creeping through the jungle after birds or 

 insects, and has sometimes only had time to draw back when 

 they were within a few inches of his face. It is startling in 

 walking along a forest path to see a long snake glide away 

 from just where you were going to set down your foot ; but 

 it is perhaps even more alarming to hear a long-drawn heavy 

 slur-r-r, and just to catch a glimpse of a serpent as thick as 

 your leg and an unknown number of feet in length, showing 

 that you must have passed unheeding within a short dis- 

 tance of where it was lying. The smaller pythons are not, 

 however, dangerous, and they often enter houses to catch and 

 feed upon the rats, and are rather liked by the natives. You 

 will sometimes be told when sleeping in a native house that 

 there is a large snake in the roof, and that you need not be 

 disturbed in case you should hear it hunting after its prey. 

 These serpents no doubt sometimes grow to an enormous 



