52 



It is by mutilating the stumpy tail of this snake that 

 exhibtors of double-headed snakes manufacture their speci- 

 mens. Grows to four feet, of which tail one-twelfth. 

 Much less common than Gongylophis. 



Family V.— ACROCHORDIDiE. 

 Body moderate, rounded, or slightly compressed ; tail 

 short; head small, not distinct. Eye small. Nostrils 

 superior. Head scaled. Scales small wart-like, tubercular, 

 or spiny. No ventrals. 



ACROCHORDUS, Hornstedt. 

 Tail slightly compressed, without any fold of skin below. 

 Each scale with a triangular keel, ending in a spine. 



A. JAVANicus, Hornstedt. 



Nasals simple, contiguous. The mouth has a bull-dog 

 arrangement of the lips, there being a central notch above, 

 and a notch below on either side, with corresponding pro- 

 tuberances. Brown with large confluent dark spots. This 

 extraordinary snake grows to 8 feet, is quite terrestial (and 

 even frugivorous) though of pelagic appearance and vivipar- 

 ous. 



Java, Straits. 



CHERSYDRUS, Cuvier. 

 Tail compressed, and expanded by a fold of skin running 

 along the lower side. Each scale with a short tubercular 

 keel. 



C. GRANULATUS, Schneider. 



Scales above a hundred. Only the ventral scales are 

 spiny ; otherwise like Acrochordus. Dark grey above, 

 yellowish below, each colour sending out short alternate 

 cross-bands. Aquatic. 



Rivers and coasts of Burma and the Straits. 



