THE GOLDEN TREE SNAKE. 



137 



THE beautiful BOIGA, sometimes called the AH^ETULLA, also belongs to the family of 

 Tree-Serpents. This pretty and graceful creature inhabits Borneo, and on account of the 

 extreme gentleness of its disposition, and the ease with which it is tamed, the children 

 are in the habit of considering it as a kind of living toy, and allow it to twine around 

 their bodies, or carry it about in their little hands without the least alarm. It is a most 

 active Serpent, living in trees, and darting its lithe form from branch to branch with 

 arrow-like celerity, leaping, as it were, from the coiled folds in which it prepares itself for 

 the spring, and passing through the boughs as if shot from a bow, its glittering scales 

 (lashing an emerald or sapphirine radiance, as it glances through the sunbeams. 



The. head of the Boiga is long and slender, as beseems the delicate body ; the eye is 

 large, full, and round, and the gape very wide. The upper part of its body is rich shining 



BOI'3A. 



liaoereut. 



blue, shot with sparkling green ; and three bright golden stripes run along the body, one 

 traversing the spinal line, and another passing along each side. Behind each eye is a 

 bold jetty black streak, and immediately below the black line runs a stripe of pure 

 white. 



The specific name ought properly to "be spelled leiocercus. It is of Greek origin, and 

 signifies smooth-tail, in allusion to the smooth-surfaced scales of the back and tail. 



THE family of the Wood-Snakes, or Dryiophidse, as they are learnedly called, contains 

 some interesting and rather curious reptiles. The upper figure in the illustration repre- 

 sents the GOLDEN TREE-SNAKE, which is a native of Mexico. It is a most lovely species, 

 and of a most singular length, looking more like the thong of a " gig whip " than 

 a living reptile. It lives in trees, and in many respects resembles the preceding species. 

 It is not so gorgeously decorated as the boiga, but its colours are beautifully soft and 

 delicate. The general tint of this Serpent is grey, tinged with yellow, and having a golden 

 reflection in certain lights, and being decidedly iridescent in others. The body is 

 profusely covered with minute dottings of black. 



The lower figure represents the LANGAHA, one of the Serpents of Madagascar, remark- 

 able for the singular appendage to the head. The muzzle is extremely elongated, and is 

 furnished with a fleshy projection, about one-third as long as the head, and covered with 

 small scales. There is another species, the COCK'S-COMB LANGAHA (Langaha crista-galli), 

 also a native of Madagascar, which is known from the ordinary species by the form of 

 the appendage, which is toothed something like the comb upon a cock's head. The. 

 colour of the Langaha is reddish brown. 



