THE SNAKES 238 



Some specimens are yellow, with two series of diamond- 

 shaped blotches, others, from eastern Venezuela and 

 the Island of Trinidad, are miiform yellowish. The 

 maximum length is six or seven feet. Tropical South 

 America and the southern islands of the West Indies 

 form the habitat. 



One species of Corallus is remarkable in being found 

 in Madagascar. 



The Sand Boas, Eryx, are degenerate, burrowing 

 species, seven in number, with a flat body, very stumpy 

 tail, a small head, not at all distinct from the neck, and 

 tiny eyes. The scales are small, either smooth or 

 strongly keeled. A yard is the maximum length. 

 Snakes of this kind are confined to sandy portions of 

 north and east Africa, southern and central Asia. 



The Rough-Scaled Sand Boa, Eryx conicus, of 

 India, is the largest species. The body is incongruously 

 stout, abruptly tapering to a blunt point, hardly worthy 

 the title of a tail; the head is small — not distinct from 

 the neck. Anteriorly, the scales of the body are small 

 and feebly keeled; toward the lateral part of the body 

 they greatly increase in size and so heavilj^ keeled as to 

 make a squirming specimen really painful to handle, 

 besides causing the front and rear parts to look as if 

 belonging to markedlj^ different reptiles; the tail termi- 

 nates in a blunt, bony knob. The pattern is in keeping 

 with the strange form. On a pale brownish body color 

 is a wide, undulating band narrowly bordered with ruddy 

 yellow. We find some specimens with this band broken 

 into two series of rounded blotches ; such look singularly 

 like a deadly, thick -bodied snake of India, the Tic Po- 

 longa or Russell's Viper, Vipera russellii. To use the 

 language of romantic writers of natural history, the 

 sand boa might be said to "mimic" the deadlj^ viper. 



