THE PRINCIPAL SPECIES OF POISONOUS SNAKES 



Total length, 350 millimetres ; tail 30. 



Habitat : Cape of Good Hope. 



(5) B. cornida (fig. 38).— Nostnls opening upwards and out- 

 wards. Head covered with small, imbricate, strongly keeled scales ; 

 2— .5 raised scales, like horns, above each eye ; 12—14 scales round 

 the eye ; 12—1,5 supralabials ; 2—3 infralabials. Scales on the body 

 keeled, in 25—29 rows ; 120—162 

 ventrals ; 18—36 subcaudals. 



Colour grey or reddish - brown, 

 with black spots, edged with white 

 and arranged in 3 or 4 longitndina 

 series; a dark, oblique streak from 

 the eye to the moatli ; belly yellow 

 or brown, uniform or spotted. 



Total length, 510 milhmetres ; 



fai'l Sf, 



Fig. 38. — liitis cornuta. 

 (After Dumeril and Bibron. 



Habitat : Cape Colony, Naniaqualand, Damaraland. 



(G) B. caudali.s. — Nostrils opening upwards and outwards. 

 12 — 16 scales froua one eye to the other across the head ; above 

 each eye a single, erect, horn-like scale ; 10 — 16 scales round the 

 eye ; 10 — 13 supralabials ; 2 — 3 infralabials. Scales on the body 



in 22 — 29 rows, strongly keeled 

 caudals. 



Colour reddish or sandy-grey, 



112—153 ventrals ; 18—33 sub- 



with 2 series of brown spots with 



light centres, and frequently a vertebral series of narrow spots ; 

 belly dull yellow, uniform, or witli small black spots on tlie sides. 



Total length, 360 millimetres ; tail 25. 



Habitat : South-west Africa, from Angola to Naniaqualand. 



(7) B. gaboiiica (Gaboon Viper, or River Jack Viper). — Nostrils 

 directed upwards and outwards. Head covered with small, 

 moderately keeled scales, smallest on the vertex, 13 — 16 from eye 

 to eye ; 15 — 19 scales round the eye ; a pair of erectile, triangular, 

 nasal " horns," consisting of sometimes tricuspid shields, between 

 the supranasals ; 13 — 16 supralabials ; 4 — 5 infralabials. Scales 



