564 COLLEGE ZOOLOGY 



species of fish-eating, river snakes of the East Indies. The sub- 

 family Dipsadomorphin^e contains about two hundred and 

 seventy-five species of slender, long-tailed snakes of cosmopolitan 

 distribution. They are terrestrial, subterrestrial, arboreal, 

 or semiaquatic in habits. The opisthoglyphs of the United 

 States are found only in the southern part. They are moderate 

 or small in size, few in number, and not very dangerous. 



Series C. Proteroglypha. — The proteroglyphs are Colu- 

 brid.£ which possess fixed, tubular fangs in the anterior part 

 of the upper jaw. As in the case of the opisthoglypha, they are 

 all venomous. Many of them are the most dangerous of all 

 poisonous reptiles. There are two subfamilies. 



The Hydrin.e, or sea-snakes, are true sea-serpents. They 

 inhabit the Indian Ocean and the western, tropical Pacific, 

 and one species occurs along the western coast of tropical 

 America. They reach a length of from three to eight feet or 

 more, and most of them are very poisonous. The tail, and some- 

 times the body, is laterally compressed — an adaptation for 

 swimming. 



The subfamily Elapin^e contains twenty-nine genera and 

 about one hundred and fifty species of poisonous snakes. They 

 are most abundant in Australia and New Guinea, but occur also 

 in India, Malaysia, Africa, and America. The single genus 

 Elaps of the New World contains about twenty-eight species 

 of coral-snakes. Two of these are found in the United States, 

 the harlequin or coral snake, Elaps fulvius, and the Sonoran 

 coral-snake, E. euryxanthus. 



The harlequin snake of the southeastern United States aver- 

 ages about two and a half feet in length. Its body is ringed by 

 broad cross bands of scarlet and blue-black, separated by nar- 

 row bands of yellow. It can easily be distinguished from the 

 harmless scarlet king-snake (p. 562), since in the latter the yellow 

 bands are bordered by the black ones. The harlequin snake 

 burrows in the ground, and feeds chiefly upon lizards and snakes. 

 It is oviparous. Most writers consider this snake dangerous 



