SNAKES 83 



common Sarawak species are of a very vivid green. 

 These are Coluber oxycephalus ; Dryophis prasinus, the 

 Whip-Snake ; and Lachesis wagleri, the Tree-Viper. The 

 first two of these belong to the great family Colubridce, 

 but to different sections of that family. The Colubridce 

 are divided into three sections the Aglypha, the Opis- 

 thoglypha, and the Proteroglypha. The Aglypha are not 

 poisonous, and all the teeth are solid ; the Opisthoglypha 

 have the hinder teeth situated on that part of the 

 upper jaw known as the maxilla ; these teeth are 

 grooved, and some of the species are poisonous, 

 though their poison has seldom much effect on man. 

 The Proteroglypha are provided with a deadly poison, 

 and have the front teeth or fangs on the maxilla 

 grooved or perforated ; the ducts of the poison glands 

 lead to these fangs. Coluber oxycephalus is one of 

 the Aglypha, Dryophis prasinus one of the Opistho- 

 glypha, or suspected Colubrines, as the snakes 

 belonging to this section are sometimes called : the 

 Cobra is an example of a Proteroglyphous snake. 

 Coluber oxycephalus is found amongst herbage, in 

 bushes, or in trees. The body is bright grass-green, 

 but the tail is of a peculiar brownish colour, and as 

 there is no gradation from the one colour to the other 

 at the point of junction of tail and body, the snake has 

 a rather curious appearance. The Malays calls this 

 species " ular ikor mati," or the snake with the dead 

 tail ; the Sea-Dayaks say of it that if a man be bitten 

 by it when the moon is full he will take little or no 

 harm, but if bitten when the moon is new, then he 

 will certainly die. One specimen I found amongst 

 scrub growing on the sandy foreshore at the mouth of 

 the Trusan River in Northern Sarawak. In adaptation 



