THB PBINCIPAL SPECIES OF POISONOUS SNAKES 63 



nostril between two nasal shields and an internasal. Body cylin- 

 drical ; scales oblique, keeled, in 19 rows ; ventrals rounded. Tail 

 moderate ; subcaudal scales in 2 rows. 



S. hamachates (The Spitting Snake, or Eing Hals Slang).— This 

 snake, which is about 700 millimetres in length, is of a bluish- 

 brown colour, with numerous narrow, undulating and denticulate 

 cross-bands of yellow or yellowish-white. The throat is black or 

 dark red ; the belly grey. 



It is met with throughout West, East, and South Africa, as far 

 as the Cape of Good Hope, where it is very common. It lives 

 among bushes in sandy places, where the ground is full of the holes 

 of rats, moles, and small rodents, upon which it feeds. It is very 

 active and exhibits great ferocity. 



Natives at the Cape declare that this snake is able to project its 

 venom to a distance of more than a yard, especially if the wind is 

 blowing in the same direction, and that, if the poison happens to 

 enter the eye, the inflammation that results therefrom often leads 

 to loss of sight (Smith). 



As to this, a very definite statement is given by Bavay,' on the 

 authority of Le Naour : — 



"While hunting in Dahomey," wrote Le Naour to Bavay, 

 "I thrice met with the snake called the Spitter. On two occa- 

 sions my dog was struck in both eyes by the liquid projected 

 by the reptile. Immediately (less than two minutes afterwards), 

 symptoms of conjunctivitis manifested themselves, with consider- 

 able swelling of the pupils; the conjunctivitis seemed as though 

 it were going to be very serious, and yielded only after twelve 



' " Le serpent oracheur de la c6te occidentale d'Afrique,'' Societe Zool. 

 de France, 1895, p. 210. Bavay thinks tliat the Spitting Snake is a Naja haje, 

 but the description that he gives of the head of the reptile, which was sent 

 to him by Le Naour, certainly agrees with the characters of Sepedon. Moreover, 

 I have satisfied myself that the many specimens of Naja haje that I have kept 

 in captivity in my laboratory never possessed the faculty of spitting their poison 

 to a distance. 



