42 



Sekpents.- 



-REPTILES.- 



-ViPEHiNE Serpents. 



thick, swollen-looking body, becoming slightly more 

 slender towards the tail. The colour is dark olive 

 above, and yellowish-white beneath. It is found in 

 Bahia, and the hotter parts of Brazil towards the banks 

 of the river Amazon, where it feeds upon birds and 

 small mammalia, as squirrels, &c. In length it varies 

 from three and a half to four and a half feet, with a 

 circumference of four inches about the thickest portion 

 of the body. 



THE BODROO V&IS. oi ImWa. {Trimeswus viridis) — 

 Plate 4, fig. 2. As the Lance-heads are natives of 

 the New World, so the Trimesuri are confined to the 

 hot regions of the Old World. They ai-e almost all 

 found in Asia. The head of the Bodroo Pam is flat, 

 and much broader than the neck, and its mouth is 

 large and furnished with very long fangs. It is about 

 two feet six inches in length, and is of a fresh green 

 colour. The first and almost the only account we have 

 of this snake is given to us by Dr. Patrick Russell, in 

 his " History of the Serpents of India." A specimen 

 was brought to him by some natives of the upper 

 coimtry from Tranquebar. When he first saw it, he 

 tells us, it looked fresh and lively, was very alert, hissed, 

 and snapped at everything opposed to it, yet did not 

 oiler to touch a chicken which was walking about in 

 the same room. In preparing for an attack, it wreathed 

 its neck and part of its trunk into rather close tin'ns, 

 and at the same time retracted its head. " The remark- 

 ably long slender fangs, exposed on opening the mouth, 

 betokened its being highly noxious ; but the peasants 

 who brought it ufiirmed that its power of killing 

 extended only to the smaller animals — not to dogs or 

 sheep ; and that to man its bite caused various dis- 

 orders, but never death. 



THE SOUEOUCOUCOirS, belonging to the genus 

 Lachesis, are natives of Brazil and Peru. They are 

 known also by the name of the Dumb Rattlesnakes, 

 from their resemblance to the real Rattlesnakes, with 

 the exception of their tail having no rattles, and their 

 being therefore incapable of making the noise these 

 latter serpents produce by means of that organ. 



THE BEAZILIAH SOUEOUCOTTCOU {Lachesis muius) 

 is one of the best known of all the poisonous snakes of 

 that country. It is also the largest, for Spix informs us 

 that it sometimes acquires a length of nine or ten feet, 

 and a circumference in body of more than twelve inches. 

 It is found in tolerable abundance throughout the 

 whole of Brazil, inhabiting dark, sombre forests, where 

 it keeps concealed under leaves. Its food consists of 

 small mammalia, birds, and some kinds of reptiles. 

 The bite of this snake is said to be fatal. 



The Cenchrfna are also natives of America, but 

 appear to be confined to the United States. 



THE WATER VIPER, or Water Moccasin {Ccnchris 

 piscivorus), is a native of the Carolinas, of the Floridas, 

 Alabama, and the tributaries of the river Mississippi, 

 as far as Tennessee. It is about two feet in length, and 

 five inches in circumference round the body, which is 

 very robust and thick, even to the tail, where it con- 

 tracts suddenly. The tail is short and thick, convex, 

 and terminates in a horny point. The head is very 

 large and triangular, and the eye is large, though it does 

 not appear so at first sight, from the projection of the 



superior orbital plate. Catcsby, in his "Natural History 

 of Carolina," was the first to describe this snake. " The 

 back and head of this serpent," he says, " is brown, the 

 belly marked transversely with black and yellow alter- 

 nately, as are the sides of the neck. The neck small, 

 the head large, armed with the like destructive weapons 

 as the rattlesnake, which next to it is reckoned the 

 largest of any viper in these parts, and, contrary to 

 most other vipers, are very nimble, and particularly 

 dexterous in catching fish. In summer great numbers 

 of these serpents are seen lying on the branches of 

 trees hanging over rivers, from which, at the approach 

 of a boat, they drop into the water, and often into the 

 boat on the men's heads. Thej' lie in this manner to 

 surprise either birds or fish ; after these last tbey plunge, 

 and pursue them w-ith great swiftness, and catch some 

 of a large size, which they carry on shore and swallow 

 whole." Holbrook, in his " North American Ilerpe- 

 tology," gives a similar account of this snake, adding a 

 few particulars in addition to what has been given 

 above by Catesby. He informs us tliat it is found 

 about damp, swampy places, or in water — far from 

 which it is never observed. " Id summer numbers of 

 these serpents are seen resting on the low branches of 

 such trees as overhang the water, into ■which they 

 plunge on the slightest alarm." Catesby, he thinks, is 

 wrong in considering that they select these places in 

 order to watch for prey. They merely choose them, 

 he says, in order to bask in the sun, for in situations 

 deprived of trees, such as the ditches in rice fields, thej' 

 may be seen basking near these on dry banks. " They 

 are the terror of the negroes that labour about rice 

 plantations, where they are dreaded more than the 

 rattlesnake, which only bites when irritated, or in self- 

 defence, or to secure its prey. The Water Moccasin, on 

 the contrary, attacks everything that comes within his 

 reach, erecting his head and opening his month ibr 

 some seconds before he bites. I have placed," con- 

 tinues Mr. Holbrook, " in a cage with the Water 

 Moccasin several of the harmless snakes at a time ; 

 they all evinced the greatest distress, hanging to the 

 sides of the cage, and endeavouring by every means 

 to escape from the enemy, who attacked them all in turn. 

 Two animals of his own species were then thrown into 

 the cage ; he seemed instantly aware of the character 

 of his new visitors, and became perfectly quiet. Indeed, 

 I have often received four or five of these animals in 

 safety, after their having peaceably travelled together 

 a journey of fifty miles in the same box. The food of 

 the Water ]\loccasin is such fish as he can overtake — 

 and few exceed his velocity in swimming — and what- 

 ever small reptiles, as frogs, toads, tadpoles, &c., that 

 fall in his way." 



The species belonging to the second group, or those 

 which, instead of a spine at the end of the tail, have 

 this organ terminated by a series of plates called a 

 rattle, are few in number. Three of tliese belong to 

 the genus Ckotalopiiorus, a genus in which the rattles 

 at the end of the tail are few in number and not well 

 developed, and consequently make but a feeble noise, 

 or even sometimes none at all. 



THE GEOtrND RATTLESNAKE, or SMALL RATTLE- 

 SNAKE {Crotalojphorus miUaris) is the best known 



