624 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
FER-DE-LANCE (Lachesis lanceolatus) : SOUTH AMERICA AND THE LESSER ANTILLES 
(SEE PAGE 633) 
A big “lancehead” is six feet long. The fangs are enormously developed and the bite of 
this snake is usually fatal unless the most approved remedies are at hand. 
anti-venomous serum has been found to be most practical. 
Photo by Raymond L,. Ditmars. 
on the sugar-cane plantations. 
taining the formidable cobras and their 
allies. The members of this important 
subfamily are treacherously deceptive in 
appearance. Here we have an admirable 
illustration of how incorrect it is to be- 
lieve a poisonous snake may be told by 
the possession of a heart-shaped head. 
A number of the most deadly known 
snakes belong to this subfamily. 
The most diabolical in temper and ter- 
rible of them all is as innocent looking 
in bodily makeup as the typical and 
harmless snakes. 
The New World is singularly free of 
such reptiles, a single genus representing 
the subfamily. India, Malaysia, and 
Africa are infested with these elapine 
snakes. ‘The headquarters, however, are 
in Australia and New Guinea. There 
they constitute the great majority of ser- 
Injections of an 
The fer-de-lance is greatly feared 
pent life. These are the only regions of 
the world where poisonous reptiles pre- 
dominate. 
Most spectacular of the elapine ser- 
pents are the cobras, or “hooded” snakes. 
The genus Naja, of India, Malaysia, and 
Africa, contains to of these reptiles, of 
which the most conspicuous is the Indian 
or spectacled cobra. Members of several 
allied genera rear the body from the 
ground and spread the neck in similar 
fashion. 
THE POISON-SPITTING SNAKE 
Some of the African cobras display a 
dangerous habit of spitting poison at the 
intruder. The ringhals, genus Sepedon, 
of southern Africa, is a pitchy black, ex- 
ceedingly vicious cobra that receives its 
name from one or two broad white 
