40 OPHIDIAi^ EEPTILBS. 



pelagic in the instance of one very widely diffused species, the 

 Pelamis bicolor. In the Arboreal Snakes the tail is very long, 

 and highly prehensile ; in others, as the Vipers, it is short and 

 without any prehensility. In -the Sea Snakes (Hydrophidce), it 

 is laterally much compressed. Like other true reptiles. Snakes 

 abound more especially in warm climates, and there are many kinds 

 of them in Australia ; but the order has not a single representative 

 in New Zealand. 



Most of the Snakes feed on living animals, only a few on birds' 

 eggs. Several kinds of them prey habitually on other Snakes, as 

 the genera Hdmadryas, Bungarus, and Elaps, even Psanimophis 

 occasionally ; and there are rare instances of non-venemous 

 Snakes preying upon poisonous ones. The venemous kinds first 

 kill their victim by poisoning it ; various others by smothering 

 it between the coils of their body. As they do not possess organs 

 for tearing the prey to pieces, nor a dentition fit for mastication, 

 the prey is swallowed entire ; and in consequence of the great 

 width of the mouth, and of the extraordinary extensibility of the 

 skin of the gullet, they are able to swallow animals of which 

 the girth much exceeds their own. The Sea Snakes prey mostly 

 upon fishes, and the ordinary Water Snakes {Homolopsidce, &c.) on 

 frogs and other Batrachians. Certain swallowers of birds' eggs 

 have peculiar spinous processes proceeding from the vertebrae of 

 the neck, the object of which is to fracture the shell of an egg 

 during the process of deglutition. 



Most of the Ophidian Reptiles are oviparous, but many are 

 ovo-viviparous. The Pythons alone (so far as ascertained) perform 

 a sort of incubation, which has been repeatedly observed of captive 

 specimens of these huge Serpents. 



Many Snakes are remarkable for their great beauty of colouring, 

 or of the pattern of their markings ; but on account of the 

 poisonous property of so many of them, the whole order is 

 popularly regarded with horror and apprehension, and the most 

 foolish tales are current respecting various species of them. Thus 

 ma^iy people suppose that there are Snakes which rob cows of 

 their milk ; and the skeleton of a child being found in the same 

 hollow with a number of harmless Snakes (the North American 

 Conjphodon constrictor), it was concluded, as a matter of course. 



