Pelagic Serpents.- 



-REPTILES.- 



-ACROCHORDE OF JaVA. 



51 



off Port-Jacksou iu Australia, and ou the coast of New 

 Zealand. It occurs also in the Pacific Ocean, and is 

 said to be eaten by the natives of Tahiti. Dr. Russell 

 says that the fishermen of Vizagapatam assert that it 

 seldom approached the shore, and that it was a very 

 dangerous reptile. 



THE KADELL NAGAM {Microcc2>halo2iMs gracilis) 

 is also a native of the Indian seas ; Dr. Russell, who 

 was amongst the first to describe it, having received 

 his specimens from the coast of Tranquebar. It has 

 a rery small head, a very long and slender neck, and 

 the body, which is of a considerably larger size, be- 

 comes a little compressed as it approaches the tail, 

 which is short, flat, and two-edged. It has a narrow 

 mouth, small teeth, and very small globular eyes. It 

 attains the length of two feet nine inches, and is of a 

 bright blue colour, with cross yellow bands, more 

 especially on the neck and tail. The belly is of a 

 lighter yellow, with faint blue bands. According to 

 Dr. Russell, the bite of this serpent is reputed by the 

 natives of India to be not less dangerous than that 

 of the cobra de capello. 



THE VALAKADYEN {Enhydrina valakadyen), from 

 the Indian seas, has a cylindrical body, of nearly equal 

 thickness throughout, or slightly swollen in the middle, 

 and a short, compressed, double-edged tail. It has an 

 oblong, compressed head, a wide mouth, a blunt muzzle, 

 and small round eyes, placed high on the head. It is 

 about three feet three inches long, the tail of itself being 

 four and a half inches. The upper part of the body 

 is of a bluish-gray colour, and the belly yellow. 



The Valakadyen, as it is called by the natives of 

 India, is represented by them as very venomous, its 

 bite being asserted to be infallibly mortal, if proper 

 remedies are not instantly applied. Schlegel considers 

 this species to be identical with another serjjent de- 

 Bcribed by Dr. Russell under the name of the Hoogli 

 Pattee. This snake was one of which Russell had 

 living specimens, and which he kept in order to test 

 their venomous powers. A fowl bitten in the thigh 

 by an individual of this species expired, he says, in 

 five minutes. 



THE ACEOCHORDIANS {Acrocliordina) are inter- 

 mediate between the Pelagic or Sea serpents and the 

 Fluviatile species. In this small family the head, 

 instead of being covered with shields, is covered with 

 small scales hke those of the body, which are described 

 by Dumeril and Bibron as granulated tubercles inserted 

 into the skin. The species too, are for the most part 

 found living in rivers. Schlegel considers them as 

 boas adapted by then- organization to live in water. 

 They have the prehensile tail of these larger ser- 

 pents, but at the same time this organ is in general 

 flattened so as to serve the purpose of an oar or rud- 

 der. The head and teeth are on the same type as the 

 boas ; but the position of the nostrils and eyes, the 

 manner in which the mouth can be hermetically closed, 

 the compressed form of the body, which is furnished 

 with a keel on the under surface, and tlie absence of 

 the spurs or books at the side of the vent, all bring 

 them more closely to the Pelagic or Sea serpents. 

 They have not yet been experimentally proved to be 

 poisonous, nor are they incontestably innocuous. The 



species are few, and as yet have only been observed in 

 intertropical Asia. 



THE BANDED CHEESYDEUS {Chersydnis granula- 

 tus or fascial lis) is found in the rivers and on the edge 

 of the sea, in the peninsula of Malacca and neighbour- 

 ing islands, in the Bay of Manilla, New Guinea, Timor, 

 Java, Sumatra, and the coast of Coromandel. In size 

 it does not exceed three feet. Dr. Cantor found it in 

 tolerable abundance in the Sea of Malacca, where it 

 often occurs amongst the fishes taken in the fisher- 

 men's nets. A female taken in that way, he says, 

 three or four miles from the coast of Penang, mea- 

 sured three feet long and four inches in circumference, 

 and had six eggs. These were cylindrical, soft, or 

 with a whitish membranous shell, and were an inch 

 and a half long. Each egg contained a young one, 

 eleven inches long. By its mode of feeding and its 

 general habits, he adds, this serpent resembles the 

 venomous Pelagic species. In the water it is livel}'; 

 but on land, and especially in the light of day, it 

 appears bhnd, and its movements slow and uncertain. 

 THE ACEOCHORDE OP JAVA {Acrochordas Javani- 

 cus) — represented in Plate 4, fig 6 — is of a very 

 robust form, with a flattened belly and a conical tail, 

 which is very short iu proportion to the body, and 

 terminates in a point rough with tubercles. The 

 Swedish naturalist Hornstedt was the first to describe 

 this serpent as occurring in the island of Java, and Dr. 

 Cantor has since found it in the island of Penang. The 

 Malays, says Dr. Cantor, declare this serpent to be 

 rare. During a sojourn of twenty years at Singapore, 

 Dr. Montgomery only observed a specimen once. 

 The Malays know it by the name of UHar Karong 

 or U'lar Laid. The physiognomy of this serpent is 

 said by Dumeril to resemble very much that of an 

 English bull-dog, the head being broad and the muzzle 

 short and blunt. The individual mentioned by Horn- 

 stedt measured eight feet in length. 



THE FLUVIATIIiE OR FEESH-WATEE SNAKES {Ho- 

 malopsina) are nearly equal in number to the Pelagic 

 group, about thirty-six being described in the Museum 

 catalogue. We know relatively very little of their 

 habits, most of the species which have been observed 

 living almost continually in the water. They are 

 almost all natives of intertropical countries, and have 

 been met witli in India and China, Java, Borneo, the 

 West Indies, and the warm parts of North and South 

 America. Many of them attain considerable dimen- 

 sions, but they rarely exceed four feet in length, 

 though they are as thick as a man's arm. The great 

 proportion of them are truly aquatic, and appear par- 

 ticularly formed for peopling the immense extents of 

 fresh waters found in the intertropical countries of 

 Asia and America, and which swarm with fish, of 

 which they make their chief food. They have a 

 peculiar appearance. The gi-eat disproportions of form 

 — a short, conical, and robust tail ; a head extremely 

 broad, thick, blunt, short, and covered with plates of 

 a very irregular and inconstant form ; a short obtuse 

 muzzle ; small nostrils, and little eyes directed upwards 

 — all these characters concur to render the aspect of 

 these animals at once hideous and disgusting. Never- 

 tlieless they are quite hai-mless, in spite of the malignity 



