64 VENOMOUS SERPENTS. 



of catalepsy, which renders it stiff and immoveable, as if they 

 had changed it into a rod or stick. Its poison is very active, and 

 Galen relates that, at Alexandria, they resorted to the bite of 

 this serpent to abridge the punishment of criminals condemned to 

 death. It is unquestionably the Aa<) of Cleopatra. The ancient 

 Egyptians took it as the emblem of the protecting divinity of the 

 world, and sculptured it on their monuments, on opposite sides of 

 a globe. Its habit of erecting itself, when approached, led them 

 to believe that it watched the fields in which it was found. 



73. Other venomous serpents with isolated fangs, called ELAPS, 

 have a mouth that is hardly dilatable; and there are some, in 

 which the tail is compressed in the form of a paddle, whose 

 habits are aquatic. They form the genus of PLATURUS. 



74. Among the VENOMOUS SERPENTS WITHOUT ISOLATED FANGS, 

 there are some which are scarcely distinguishable from the Colu- 

 bers ; their mouth is furnished above with four rows of teeth like 

 the non-venomous serpents without there being perceived, in the 

 place ordinarily occupied by the fangs, any thing of a nature in- 

 dicative of the existence of a venomous apparatus. In fact, the 

 excretory canal of the poisonous gland, in them, terminates in 

 one of the last maxillary teeth, which is somewhat larger than 

 the others, and simply farrowed by a gutter. Some of the 

 serpents of America and Africa possess this kind of organization. 



75. There are also others which, with the armature of the 

 mouth very nearly like the last, have the first maxillary tooth 

 larger than the others, and pierced, like the moveable fangs above 

 mentioned, to conduct the poison. Some, known in India under 

 the name of Ruck Serpents, have simple plates under the belly 

 and tail, and constitute the genus BUNGARUS. The others, called 

 HYDRUS, have the posterior part of the -body and tail very much 

 compressed, and raised vertically, which gives them facility in 

 swimming: they are common in certain parts of the Indian seas. 



73. What is the genus Elaps ? What is the genus Platurus ? 



74. What are the general characters of Serpents without isolated fangs ? 



75. What are the characters of the genus Bungarus ? What are the 

 characters of the genus Hydrus ? 



