SNAKES ' i6i 



country in bunches of bananas, and specimens are occasion- 

 ally sent to the Zoological Gardens from Covent Garden 

 Market. This snake, which only attains a length of two 

 feet, is reddish-brown above, with dorsal series of large, 

 black blotches, which often form a zigzag band. Although 

 arboreal in habits it feeds exclusively on frogs and fish. 



The genus Chrysopelea, of South-Eastern Asia, is made 

 up of three species. The head is distinct from the neck ; 

 the eye is large, with a round pupil. The body and tail 

 are elongate and somewhat compressed ; the scales of 

 the upper surface are smooth or very feebly keeled, while 

 the plates on the belly and tail are keeled and notched 

 laterally. The teeth are sub-equal and all small ; the 

 fangs are only very feebly enlarged. 



The " Flying " Snake, C. ornata, of Ceylon, South 

 India, Bengal, Assam, Burma, South China, and the 

 Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, is specially noteworthy 

 for its habit of taking flying leaps from one tree to another. 

 Captain Flower has observed a specimen leap from an 

 upstair window of a house, downwards and outwards, on 

 to a branch of a tree, a distance of eight feet, and then 

 crawl away among the foliage. Shelford, who has reported 

 similar performances, took specimens to a height of nearly 

 twenty feet and allowed them to fall several times ; after 

 one or two false starts the snakes were felt to glide from 

 the experimenter's hands, straighten themselves out, and, 

 hollowing in their ventral surface as they moved, para- 

 chuted to the ground. According to Flower, Chrysopelea 

 is very fierce, and always attempts to resist capture by 

 striking and biting furiously, and will frequently, on such 

 occasions, bite into the sides of its own body. The 



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