WATER-SNAKES 327 



markable. They glide about the house, going in and out at 

 pleasure, a terror to thieves, but never attempting to harm the 

 inmates. 



The agility of the Rat-snake in seizing its nimble-footed prey 

 is truly wonderful. One day Sir Emerson Tennent had an 

 opportunity of surprising a coryphodon which had just seized on 

 a rat, and of covering it suddenly with a glass shade, before it 

 had time to swallow its prey. The serpent, which appeared 

 stunned with its own capture, allowed the rat to escape from its 

 jaws, which cowered at one side of the glass in an agony of 

 terror. On removing the shade, the rat, recovering its spirits, 

 instantly bounded towards the nearest fence, but quick as 

 lightning, it was followed by its pursuer, which seized it before 

 it could gain the hedge, through which the snake glided with 

 its victim in its jaws. 



The Tree-snakes offer many beautiful examples of the adapta- 

 tion of colour to the animal's pursuits, which we have already 

 had occasion to admire in our brief review of the tropical insect 

 world. They are frequently of an agreeable 

 green or bluish hue, so as hardly to be dis- 

 tinguishable from the foliage among which they 

 seek their prey, or where they themselves are 

 liable to be seized upon by their enemies. They 

 are often able vertically to ascend the smoothest 

 trunks and branches, in search of squirrels and 

 lizards, or to rifle the nests of birds. 



The Water-snakes which infest some parts of watei-snake. 

 the tropical seas, though far from equalling in size the vast 

 proportions of the fabulous sea-serpent, are very formidable 

 from their venomous bite. They have the back part of the 

 body and tail very much compressed and raised vertically, so as 

 to serve them as a paddle with which they rapidly cleave the 

 waters. 



