COLUBRINE GROUP. 



213 



perpendicular black streak through the eye, and another from the eye to the mouth ; 

 the neck having a dark crossband, and a row of similar spots running down the 

 back, beneath which are another series of smaller ones, followed inferiorly by a 

 third and fourth row. With age these spots tend gradually to disappear, till finally 

 there remain only two dark brown or blackish rows running from the neck to the 

 tip of the tail. In length this snake measures rather more than 4 feet. Every- 

 where rare, the black -marked snake seems to be confined to Spain and the opposite 

 parts of Africa. While resembling the climbing snakes in the general nature of 

 its food, it also preys upon grasshoppers ; and it will follow voles and mice into 

 their burrows. A good climber, it is stated to be more rapid in its movements 

 than any other of the European snakes ; and its keenness of vision is remarkable. 



SIPO, OR BRAZILIAN WOOD-SNAKE (\ nat. size). 



Wood Snakes Whereas the preceding members of the family only climb trees in 



search of food the American wood-snakes are purely arboreal forms, 

 especially adapted by their coloration to such a mode of life. Although they 

 resemble the climbing snakes in possessing equal-sized solid teeth, they differ in the 

 larger eye, which may be of very great size, their distinctly compressed and more 

 slender body, and the small number of its longitudinal rows of scales, which does 

 not exceed from ten to twelve. The five known species are inhabitants of the West 

 Indies and the forest districts of Central and South America, all being characterised 

 by their more or less uniform olive-green coloration. In the forests of Brazil, the 

 Guianas and Venezuela, as well as in the Lesser Antilles, lives the sipo, or Brazilian 



