304 TROPICAL NATURE mt 
shine they more resemble some strange insects than members 
of the reptile tribe. 
Snakes 
Snakes are, fortunately, not so abundant or so obtrusive as 
lizards, or the tropics would be scarcely habitable. At first, 
indeed, the traveller is disposed to wonder that he does not see 
more of them, but he will soon find out that there are plenty ; 
and, if he is possessed by the usual horror or dislike of them, 
he may think there are too many. In the equatorial zone 
snakes are less troublesome than in the drier parts of the 
tropics, although they are probably more numerous and 
more varied. This is because the country is naturally a 
-vast forest, and the snakes being all adapted to a forest 
life do not as a rule frequent gardens and come into houses 
as in India and Australia, where they are accustomed to open 
and arid places. One cannot traverse the forest, however, 
without soon coming upon them. The slender green whip- 
snakes glide among the foliage, and may often be touched 
before they are seen. The ease and rapidity with which 
these snakes pass through bushes, almost without disturbing 
a leaf, is very curious. More dangerous are the green vipers, 
which lie coiled motionless upon foliage, where their colour 
renders it difficult to see them. The writer has often come 
upon them while creeping through the jungle after birds or 
insects, and has sometimes only had time to draw back when 
they were within a few inches of his face. It is startling in 
walking along a forest path to see a long snake glide away 
from just where you were going to set down your foot; but 
it is perhaps even more alarming to hear a long-drawn heavy 
slur-r-r, and just to catch a glimpse of a serpent as thick as 
your leg and an unknown number of feet in length, showing 
that you must have passed unheeding within a short dis- 
tance of where it was lying. The smaller pythons are not, 
however, dangerous, and they often enter houses to catch and 
feed upon the rats, and are rather liked by the natives. You 
will sometimes be told when sleeping in a native house that 
there is a large snake in the roof, and that you need not be 
disturbed in case you should hear it hunting after its prey. 
These serpents no doubt sometimes grow to an enormous 
