THE BOOMSLANGE. 135 



attacked by a dog, it strikes at the eyes, and can blind the poor creature. While pre- 

 paring to strike, it dilates its neck, and flattens its head, so as to look as like a veno- 

 mous Serpent as its limited means will permit. 



The color of the Gray Snake is exceedingly variable. Mostly it is uniformly black, 

 with a tinge of brown, but it often happens that the former tint is subservient to the 

 latter, and in many cases the color is gray, sometimes of a uniform tint, and sometimes 

 variegated with large dark spots. The length of this Snake is rather more than three 

 feet. 



THE little family of the Dasypeltidae possesses but one genus, but is remarkable for 

 the formation of the teeth, and their use. The teeth of the jaws are very minute and 

 scanty, being at the most only six or seven in number ; but some sharp and strong 

 processes issue from the hinder vertebrae of the neck, through holes in the membranes, 

 and form a series of tooth-like projections in the gullet. 



The most familiar example of this family is the ROUGH ANODON of Southern Africa. 

 The name Anodon is of Greek origin, and signifies toothless. This reptile lives almost 



'~/\. ?>' 

 ROUGH ANODON. Dasypeltis scabra. 



wholly upon eggs, which it eats after a curious fashion. When it finds a nest, it takes 

 the eggs into its mouth, where they lie unharmed, on account of the absence of teeth, 

 so that the shell is not broken, and the liquid contents are preserved. When, however, 

 the reptile swallows the egg, it passes into the throat, and meets the saw-like row of 

 vertebral teeth which have just been mentioned. In its passage, the shell is cut open 

 by these teeth, and the muscular contraction of the gullet then crushes the eggs, and 

 enables the contents to flow down the Snake's throat. These bony processes are 

 tipped with enamel like real teeth. 



The color of this remarkable Serpent is brown, with a row of black marks along the 

 back, sometimes coalescing into a continuous chain, a series of smaller spots upon each 

 side, and some arrow-head marks upon the head of a jetty black. 



THE next family is composed of the Tree-Serpents, or Dendrophidae, so called from 

 the habit of residing among the branches of trees. 



Our first example of this family is the well-known BOOMSLANGE of Southern Africa. 

 In pronouncing this word, which is of Dutch or German origin, and signifies Tree- 

 Snake, the reader must remember that it is a word of three syllables. The Boomslange 

 is a native of Southern Africa, and is among the most variable of Serpents in color- 



