THE ADDER, OR COMMON VIPER. 31t 



the coast, they are helpless and almost blind. Their food consists of fish and other aquatic 

 animals, which they pursue and overtake in. the salt water. There are certain parts of the Bay 

 of Bengal in which they are often seen in great numbers, and their movements in the clear blue 

 water are very agile, graceful, and beautiful. 



The Hydroplddce generally have no well-marked ventral plates, and the abdominal scales differ 

 little from those of the rest of the body, which are generally hexagonal, laid side by side, occasionally 

 slightly imbricate, and in some tubercular, a small tubercle being found in the centre of each 

 scale. But one genus (Platurus) has abdominal scales like the Land Snakes, and is sometimes found 

 in marshy ground near the sea. 



The nostrils and head shields of the Sea Snakes are peculiar. The eyes ai-e small, with 

 circular pupils, which contract so much when the Snake is taken out of water that it is said to 

 be almost blind. 



They are very poisonous. The case related of a sailor of H.M.S. Algerine, who was bitten by 

 one caught at Madras, proves them to be so. Fayrer instances a fisherman who was bitten by a Salt- 

 water Snake somewhere near the Salt Lakes, and who died in one hour and a quarter. The fishermen 

 on the coast know their dangerous properties, and carefully avoid them. 



The genera Hydrophis, Pelamis, Platurus, and Enhydrina belong to this family. 



SUB-ORDER SOLENOGLYPHIA THE VIPERINE SNAKES. 



These poisonous Snakes have the head triangular in shape and enlarged behind, whilst the 

 tail is short in relation to the body. They have a small upper maxillary bone on each side, which 

 has one large, hollow, perforated, erectile fang, and often some others growing to replace it. There 

 are small curved teeth on the lower jaw and palate. Most of these Serpents are viviparous, and they 

 may be divided into two families. The Vipers (the Viperidai) constitute one, and they have a large, 

 broad head, a vertical and long pupil in the eye, and the top of the head is covered with very little 

 plates and scales. The tail is short, and usually there are two rows of plates beneath it. They have 

 the region between the eye and the nostril flat. They are viviparous, and inhabit the Old World 

 and Australia, Africa producing the greatest number of them. Their poison gland communicates 

 with the canal in the tooth, and the venom is usually very destructive. This they appear to know, 

 for having bitten their prey, they leave it, knowing that it will die, and then they prepare to 

 swallow it. 



GENUS PELIAS.* THE ADDER, OR COMMON VIPER. 



This is the sole British representative of the family, and is the only poisonous reptile indi- 

 genous to the country. It is far more numerous in Scotland than the Common Snake, and it is 

 found now and then, and formerly in abundance, in all parts of England and Wales. Open woodlands, 

 brushwood, dry heaths, and sandy wastes, are its favourite places, and it does not seek, or necessarily 

 live near, water. Found solitary now and then, or with their young, they are discovered intertwined 

 with several of their own species, when hibernating in their retreats. They are not confined, however, 

 to England and Scotland, for they are found in France, Spain, and from Southern Italy to far north in 

 Russia. Ireland has not this poisonous Snake. They ai*e very variable in their colour ; some are nearly 

 olive, and others are a rich deep brown or dirty brownish-yellow in their general ground colour. 

 There is a mark between the eyes, and a spot on each side of the hinder part of the head, and a zigzag 

 line running the whole length of the body and tail formed by a series of confluent rhombs, as well as 

 by a row of small triangular spots on each side, and all these are darker than the ground tints. On 

 looking at the head, it is found to be covered with small scales and some plates more or less regularly 

 placed. The head is almost oval, depressed, and it widens behind the ears. The gape of the mouth is 

 great, and there are no teeth in the upper maxillary bones except the poison fangs. There is a row of 

 small teeth on the palatine bone on each side of the palate. The neck is smaller than the back of the 

 head, and the body increases to nearly the middle. It slightly diminishes to the vent, becoming 

 then abruptly smaller, and lessening to the extremity of the tail. 



This Snake is probably the "EX<S of Aristotle, and the Vipera of Virgil's Third Georgic, and the 



* Pelias leriu. 



