1036 Catalogue of Reptiles inhabiting the [Oct. 



Preparing to attack, the head is, by a short curve of the neck, brought 

 closely to the body, and drawn far backwards, when suddenly darting 

 the anterior part of the body obliquely upwards, they bite. The height 

 of the place where the wound is inflicted, of course depends on the 

 length of the serpent, which is capable of darting nearly the anterior 

 half of the body. Notwithstanding the circular pupil, they appear to 

 shun the light, hiding the head under the folds of the body, and they 

 are singularly uncertain in their movements, often suddenly jerking the 

 head or tail without any apparent object. Like all serpents of tropical 

 Asia, they seldom expose themselves to the sun : when during the day 

 they leave their hiding places, they select the shade. The genus Bun- 

 garus is terrestrial, feeding on rats, mice, serpents, {Col. mucosas, Lin.) 

 and toads. Like other venomous serpents, when the venom has been 

 inflicted on their prey, they disengage it from the fangs, sheathe and 

 place them as horizontally as possible, in order that they may offer no 

 resistance to the introduction into the mouth of the lifeless prey, which 

 is now seized head foremost. The innocuous serpents bite or strangle 

 their prey, which when life is extinct is either swallowed at once, or if 

 it happens to have been killed in a position, likely to render the deglu- 

 tion difficult, is often disengaged from between the teeth, and seized a 

 second time, by the head. In captivity these serpents refuse food, but 

 greedily lap up, and swallow water. 



A fowl four minutes after it had been bitten on the innerside of the 

 thigh, by a Bungarus fasciatus, fell on the wounded side, and was 

 shortly after seized with slight purging. The eyes were half closed, 

 the pupils alternately dilated and contracted, immobile. In 1 7 minutes 

 slight spasms occurred, under which the bird expired 43 minutes after 

 it had been wounded. 



Another fowl wounded in the same place as the former, by the same 

 serpent, but after an interval of seven hours, expired under similar 

 symptoms, only more violent spasms, in the course of 28 minutes. 



Venom taken from another serpent, the fangs of which had been 

 extracted, was inoculated by a lancet-incision in the right thigh ; four 

 minutes after the fowl was seized with trembling, fell, and remained 

 lying on the wounded side, with the eyes closed, but it gradually 

 recovered, and rose apparently recovered, 30 minutes after the inocula- 

 tion of the venom. 



