SERPENTS. 379 



to that of the cobra, has also around the occipitals three pairs of very large shields, 

 -which are characteristic of the genus ; it is further peculiar in having a single small 

 tooth behind the fang. We are now dealing with the most deadly of animals, a form, 

 the bite of which will produce the death of a human being in three minutes, and that 

 of an elephant in two hours. Were it as abundant as the cobra it would soon depopu- 

 late the country, but the Ophiophagus is a rare snake, though of wide geographical 

 range. It has been captured in India, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and other neighboring 

 islands, and is not only the most deadly, but the largest of venomous, colubriform 

 ophidians, specimens having been known to reach the length of fifteen feet. A speci- 

 men from India, exhibited before the Linnean Society of New South Wales, measured 

 14'2 inches in length. As its name implies, the Ophiophagus lives on other snakes, 

 which, as it is very strong and active, as well as possessing such virulent qualities, it 

 has little trouble in overpowering. It is often arboreal in its habits, spending a por- 

 tion of its time hid away in the hollows of decayed trees. It presents as great a 

 diversity of color arrangement as does the cobra. 



The genus Diemenia includes several Australian forms which have fifteen or 

 seventeen rows of smooth scales; the fangs provided with anterior grooves, and 

 followed, posteriorly, by a series of smaller teeth. A few of the forms, when adult, 

 are very dangerous. The gray-snake, D. reticulata, reaches a length of thirty inches, 

 and is uniformly gray above and greenish below, the underlying skin being black. 

 The eye has two circles, one of black and the other of yellow, surrounding it. Mem- 

 bers of the genus are very abundant throughout the Australian continent, with the 

 exception of the extreme north and south, and offer an excellent illustration of the 

 little value that can be placed upon color as a distinguishing character among reptiles. 

 A snake, after shedding its skin, has a much different color from that before exuvia- 

 tion. The gray-snake frequents sandy plains, where it captures small reptiles, and 

 where it also deposits its eggs, sometimes to the number of twenty. It is ordinarily 

 between two and three feet in length, and though some of its congeners are poisonous 

 its bite is said to cause but little irritation. During the cold season, as the gray-snakes 

 are extremely susceptible to frost, they retire, sometimes several together, beneath 

 flat stones, which are daily warmed by the sun, and there remain semi-torpid, often for 

 several weeks at a time. D. superciliosa is nearly double the size of the gray-snake, 

 with which it is very generally distributed, though it prefers more rocky localities, 

 where, not infrequently, it proves a dangerous animal. Though the adults retire into 

 the ground during the cold season, the young are found, as are those of many other 

 snakes, under stones and logs throughout the year. 



The north Australian J'seudonaja nuchalis has the smooth scales arranged in seven- 

 teen rows, along the back and sides, while on the non-distensible neck there are two or 

 four more. Behind the fangs there is a series of five or six small teeth. The general 

 color of this rare animal, which sometimes reaches the length of nearly six feet, is 

 brown or blackish-olive, with darker cross-bars, of which the first is of the most intense 

 shade, being in some old forms, the only persistent ornament. 



We now come to the genus Elaps which, though represented in Africa, South 

 America, and the East Indies by many species, in North America there is but one, 

 which, however, has several varieties. The Elapides are characterized by having 

 the head rounded and depressed, and not separated fronj the body by a distinct neck ; 

 the muzzle is short and broad ; the fangs stand alone in the upper jaw ; the scales are 

 smooth, and so colored as to form bands of the brightest shades of black, red, or yellow, 



