THE PUFF ADDER. 



IO S 



marked with a darker and rather more polished hue. An irregular dark brown band runs 

 along each side of the nape and the crown of the head. 



U'E now come to the second great family of poisonous Serpents, namely the Vipers, 

 or Viperidae. All the members of this family may be distinguished by the absence of 

 the pit between the eyes and the nostrils. There are no teeth in the upper jaw except 

 the two poison-fangs. 



A rather celebrated species of these Snakes is the TIC-POLONGA or KATUKA (Daboia 

 elegitns), a native of Asia, and perhaps of Brazil. This Serpent is much dreaded, its 

 poison being of a very deadly character. A chicken that was bitten by a Tic-polonga 

 died in thirty-six seconds, and a dog bitten by the same creature was dead in twenty- 

 six minutes after receiving the injury. It is tolerably common in India and Ceylon, 

 but is not so familiarly known as the cobra and other species, because it is not employed 

 for public exhibition as is the case with those Serpents. 



Sir Emerson Tennent, in his well-known " Natural History of Ceylon," writes thus of 

 the Tic-polonga. li These formidable Serpents so infested the official residence of the 

 District Judge of Trincomalie, in 1858, as to compel his family to abandon it. In 

 another instance, a friend of mine, going hastily to take a supply of wafers from an open 

 tin case which stood in his office, drew back his hand on finding the box occupied by a 

 Tic-polonga coiled within it." 



The word Tic-polonga signifies Spotted-polonga, the latter word being a kind of 

 generic title given by the natives to many Serpents, no less than eight species being 

 classed under this common title. It is said that the Tic-polonga and the cobra bear a 

 mortal hatred towards each other, and to say that two people hate each other like the 

 Tic-polonga and cobra is equivalent to our proverb respecting the cat and dog. The 

 Tic-polonga is said always to be the aggressor, to find the cobra in its hiding-place, 

 and to provoke it to fight. There are many native legends in Ceylon respecting the 

 ferocity of this Snake. 



Its general color is brown ; there are two dark brown spots on each side of the back 

 of the head, and a yellow streak runs between them. Upon the body are three rows 

 of oblong brown spots, edged with white. 



THE terrible PUFF ADDER is closely allied to the preceding species. 



This reptile is a native of Southern Africa, and is one of the commonest, as well as 

 one of the most deadly, of poisonous Snakes. It is slow and apparently torpid in all 

 its movements, except when it is going to strike, and the colonists say that it is able to 

 leap backwards so as to bite a person who is standing by its tail. Captain Drayson, 

 R.A, who has seen much of this reptile and its habits, has kindly forwarded to me the 

 following short account of this creature : 



" This formidable looking reptile is more dreaded than any other of the numerous 

 poisonous Snakes in Africa, a fact which mainly results from its indolent nature. 

 Whilst other and more active Snakes will move rapidly away upon the approach of man, 

 the Puff Adder will frequently lie still, either too lazy to move, or dozing beneath the 

 warm sun of the south. This reptile attains a length of four feet, or four feet six 

 inches, and some specimens may be found even longer ; its circumference is as much as 

 that of a man's arm. Its whole appearance is decidedly indicative of venom. Its 

 broad ace-of clubs-shaped head, its thick body, and suddenly tapered tail, and its cheq- 

 uered back, are all evidences of its poisonous nature. It derives its popular name 

 from its practice of puffing out or swelling the body when irritated. 



In a country so infested with poisonous snakes as are some portions of South Africa, 

 it is surprising that there are not- more instances of Jives having been lost by this means. 

 It is, however, as -rare -to hear of a person having been bitten and dying from the bite 

 of a poisonous Snake in South Africa as it is to hear of a. death in England from the 

 bite of a mad dog. The fact, ho.wevejv.is, that all Snakes will, if possible, make their 

 escape when a man approaches theVn, attcl it'is merely when they are trodden upon, or 

 are oppressed by their own superabundant poison, that they are disposed to bite an 

 animal unsuited for their food. 



