THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CHINA 15 



themselves to a desert environment, and, even so, usually 

 in warm countries. The bitter cold of the North China 

 winter is too much for them. Similarly amphibians ori- 

 ginated in the dense tropical jungles, swamps, and forests 

 of the Carboniferous age, where their particular mode of 

 reproduction and development from an egg laid in the water 

 through an aquatic stage to a land animal was evolved. 

 This they have retained, but they, too, have become greatly 

 reduced in size and can only live where a congenial eviron- 

 ment is to be found. Thus the dryness of the North China 

 climate is inimicable to them. Central China, on the other 

 hand, offers much more favourable conditions to both reptiles 

 and amphibians, and so we have a corresponding increase 

 in the number and variety of the species that occur there. 

 But it is in South China that we find ideal conditions for the 

 eold-blodded land vertebrates, and here these animals swarm. 

 The museum of this society contains a very fine herpetologi- 

 cal collection, thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of Dr. 

 Arthur Stanley, the present curator. But it is interesting 

 t<> note that the greater part of the collection was made in 

 the province of Fukien, where semi-tropical conditions pre- 

 vail, vegetation is extraordinarily thick, and plenty of per- 

 manent streams occur. In a valuable paper by Dr. Stanley 

 upon the Chinese reptiles in the museum, some seventy two 

 apeciea are listed, of which forty nine have Fukien against 

 their Dames. This does not mean that they are confined 

 to that province, for specimens of many of them have been 

 obtained elsewhere as well. 



\ glance at this list reveals the fact that of the various 

 forms of reptiles represented in this country snakes pre - 

 dominate Fiftj one of the seventy two species listed are 

 snakes. These snakes range from the monster python, a 

 Bpecimen of which from Fukien measures 20 feet, down to 

 the tiny blind snake. The majority of the species are non- 

 poisonous, but several very deadly forms occur^ Amongst 

 foe latter are the hlaek cobra, recorded from Chekiang and 

 Fukien all(l foe terrible Chinese viper (Ancistrodon acutus) 



* ,w- .r« enormous Other poisonous snakes 



whose poison fangs are cnoimous. wuuc p pM-nallv 



occurring in our region are the sea snakes which aie a^ua^ 



£ f(iun(l in fo e -a. and have become adapted to a manne 



Tu .l. llM( . existence by a lateral compression of the posterior 



CW and tail. The non-poisonous snakes are 



Mostly what, are called colubers-grass snakes and water 



les-and are ea.lv recognized by the usually slender 



bodies and heads. 



