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NATURAL HISTORY. 



venomous Snake has been noted, and a vertebra of a huge Coluber was found in the Miocene of the 

 South of France. In the fossiliferous deposit at CEningen three species of Coluber have been found. 



The fossil remains of Serpents in North America occur in lower Tertiary deposits. The genus 

 Dinophis was one of the Sea Snakes, and the species attained the length of thirty feet. Snake 

 remains are abundant in the fresh-water Eocene deposits of the Western States, but they are of 

 moderate size. They are related to the Boa Constrictors and others. A few fragments have been 

 found in later deposits. There are a few remains of fossil Snakes in the Tertiaries of India. 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE ORDER OPHIDIA. 



SUB-ORDER. THANATOPHIDIA (Venomous Snakes). 



FAMILY ELAPID.^E. Venomous Terrestrial Colubrines . . Example Genus Naja 



HYDROPHID.B. Venomous Water Colubrines Pelamis. 



SOLENOGLYPHIA. Viperinc Snakes | p r 

 SUB-FAMILY VIPERIDJE. Vipers / 



SUB-FAMILY CROTALIDJE. Pit Vipers ... Crotalus. 



SUB-ORDER COLUBRIFORMES. Innocuous Colubriform Snakes. 



FAMILY ACROCHORDID.^. Wart Snakes ....... Genus Acrochordus, 



DRYIOPHID.*:. Whip Snakes Passerita. 



DIPSADID.'K. Nocturnal Tree Snakes Dipsas. 



LYCODOXTID.*:. Ground Snakes ....... , Lycodon. 



AMBLYCEPHALID.%:. Blunt-heads ...... , Amblycephalus, 



DENDROPHID.E. Tree Snakes , Bucephalus. 



PSAMMOPHID.E. Desert Snakes Psammophis. 



RACHIODOXTIDJE. Throat-toothed Snakes , Dasypeltis. 



HoMALOPSiD.t. Fresh-water Snakes , Hipistes. 



COLUBRID*:. The True Snakes , Coronella. 



SUB-FAMILY NATRICIX^E. Ringed Snakes .... , Tropidonotus. 



,, DRYADINJE. Bush Snakes , Herpetodryas. 



CALAMARID.B. Dwarf Snakes .... Calamaria. 



FAMILY PYTHONIDYE. Rock Snakes Python. 



ERYCIDJE. Sand Snakes Eryx. 



TORTRICIDJE. Rollers Tortrix. 



UROPELTID.I:. Rough Tails Uropeltis. 



SUB-ORDER TYPHLGPID.E. Blind Snakes. 



FAMILY CATODOXTES Stenostoma. 



., EPANODOXTES ,, Typhlops. 



THE EXTINCT REPTILES. 



Ill describing the Chelonia, Crocodilia, and Ophidia, attention was paid to the kinds which lived 

 in ages gone by. It is now necessary to draw attention, very briefly, to the Fossil Reptiles, which cannot 

 he exactly classified in the same great groups as those now mentioned, and also to those which may, 

 with greater or less propriety, be connected with the Sauria or Lacertilia. They have been found in the 

 Permian deposits, and in those of the consecutive ages to the Pliocene, but the Trias, Lias, and Oolitic 

 strata in the Old World, and the Cretaceoxis strata of the Old and New Worlds, contain the greatest 

 number, and the structural affinities of the extinct kinds with the recent, and with Fish and 

 Birds, are very remarkable. 



THE DINOSAURIA. 



These reptiles attained the greatest size of any animals living on land, but some of them 

 were mere pigmies. Thus, the Iguanodon of the English Wealden had a thigh-bone four feet in length, 

 a Cetiosaurus found in the Oolites must have been ten feet in height, and the American Titanosaurus 

 was no less than sixty feet in length and thirty feet in height. On the other hand, Nanosaurus, an 

 associate of the other and greater one, was no larger than a Cat. They began to live in the age of the 

 Trias, and died out in the Cretaceous age, and had a vast geographical range. Most of the kinds 

 walked mainly on their hind feet, like modern Ostriches, and many left the impression of their 

 bird-like feet on the rocks. They had small fore-limbs, and a large tail. They were herbivorous as 

 a rule, but there was a carnivorous group also. A genus was found preserved in the Solenhofen slate 

 called Compsognathus, and it has some of the parts of the skeleton transitional between the Wingless 

 Birds, the Crocodilia, and the Sauria. Some had Crocodile-like heads, with beaks and teeth like a 

 Lizard (Iguana), and others had recurved, serried, huge teeth and shortish heads. The Solenhofen 

 specimen had a very bird-like head with teeth, a long neck, short fore and long hind limbs. 



