SEKPENTS. 119 



Beside these flat-tailed, eel -like water snakes, there 

 are many others which are frequenters of the water, 

 but prefer fresh water to salt, and cannot trust them- 

 selves so far from land as do the true sea-snakes. 



Several of these are placed in the genus Cerberus, 

 and are probably so called on account of the almost 

 repulsive ugliness of their large heads. They are not 

 dreaded as are those which belong to the group which 

 has already been described. 



The commonest of these snakes is the Karoo 

 Bokadam of India, Borneo, etc. It is a brown snake, 

 banded with black across the back, having white sides 

 and a black belly, mottled with black. The tail is 

 black, and there are a few pale spots along the sides. 



