COLUBRINE GROUP. 



219 



in larger or smaller numbers over Asia, Africa, and America, and are especially- 

 abundant in Australia, where they form by far the greater moiety of the ophidian 

 fauna, All of them — doubtless on account of the immunity from attack conferred 

 by their poisonous character — are remarkable for the beauty of their coloration. 



The coral-snake and its allies constitute a genus well represented in the 

 warmer regions of America, but also occurring sparingly in South Africa. They 

 are small, although rather long and plump serpents, with the body cylindrical, the 

 head flattened and scarcely differentiated from the neck, and the tail short. The 

 small eye has a circular pupil, the mouth is narrow, and the jaws admit of but 

 slight dilatation. Superiorly, the body is clothed with equal-sized, smooth scales, 

 arranged in fifteen rows ; while inferiorly the body-shields are rounded, the anal 



coral-snake (§ nat. size). 



one being undivided, and the shields beneath the tail arranged in a double series. 

 Behind the fangs, the teeth are all small. One of the handsomest members of a 

 beautiful group is the coral-snake, which inhabits a large part of South America, 

 and also occurs in the West Indies. Attaining a length of from 2 feet to 2 \ feet, 

 this snake has its ground-colour a brilliant cinnabar-red, with a special lustre on 

 the under-parts. On the body this red colour is divided into sections of equal 

 length by broad black rings, bordered by more or less distinct greenish white 

 margins ; all the red and greenish portions showing black spots on the tips of the 

 scales. The front of the head, as far back as the hinder end of the frontal shields, 

 is bluish black; at the back of the parietal shields there commences a greenish 

 white crossband, running behind the eye, and occupying the whole of the lower 

 jaw; and after this comes a black neck-ring, followed by one of the red spaces of 

 the body. As a rule, instead of being red, the tail has alternations of black and 

 whitish rings, with its tip whitish. The coral-snake is generally met with in 



