SERPENTS. 379 



with equal facility. Destitute of any prehensile mem- 

 bers, it seizes and devours the strongest and most 

 active prey, it binds its victims in a living rope, or 

 with a single scratch inflicted by its venomed fangs 

 speedily destroys the stoutest assailant. The Ophi- 

 dian Eeptiles are arranged in five families. 



The Water Serpents (Hydrophidte)* as their name 

 imports, are aquatic, many living in the sea, and 

 others in fresh water. They are chiefly natives of 

 the East Indies and the Indian seas. 



The Sea or Pelagic Serpents (Hydrophidia) are not very numerous 

 in species, thirty-two only being described, but they are extremely 

 abundant as individuals, and unlike the Terrestrial Serpents, are 

 always met with in numbers together ; so much is this the case 

 in latitudes where they are common, that their appearance serves to 

 mariners as an indication that they are approaching land. Their 

 body, in order more easily to cleave the waves, becomes slender to- 

 wards the two extremities, and their tail is so compressed or flattened 

 as to be at once an oar and a rudder. These snakes cannot erect 

 their fangs so much as the Viperine Serpents, and in biting their 

 prey, they retain hold of it with their jaws. Their size varies in 

 different species, from two feet and a half to five feet. 



The Fresh Water Snakes (Homalopsina) f are nearly equal in 

 number to the Marine, about thirty-six species being described. 

 They are almost all natives of intertropical countries, and have been 

 met with in India, China, Java, Borneo, the West Indies, and in the 

 warm parts of North and South America. Many of them attain 

 considerable dimensions, but they rarely exceed four feet in length, 

 though they are as thick as a man's arm. The greater proportion of 

 them are truly aquatic, and appear particularly formed for peopling 

 the immense tracts of fresh water found in the countries they in- 

 habit, which swarm with fishes, that constitute their usual food. 

 They have a peculiar appearance, and most disproportionate shape, 

 a short, conical, and robust tail, a head exceedingly broad, thick, 

 blunt, and short, covered with plates of irregular and inconstant 

 form, small nostrils, and little eyes directed upwards. 



The second family is that of the Venomous 

 Serpents, par excellence, the most dreadful of all 

 living creatures. Fortunately there is something 

 more than usually repulsive in their aspect, their 

 thick broad head, their wide jaws, their brilliant 

 eyes, give them an expression of diabolical malig- 

 nity, and man and beast instinctively recoil from 

 their presence. Their general appearance and phy- 



* uScop, udor, water ; u<bts, ophis, a snake. 



t 6//,aA(fc, homaloSj smooth ; ftyts, opsis, appearance. 



