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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In temperate climates serpents as a rule are less fierce than in the 

 tropics. In North America the Crotalidoe comprise twelve species 

 with rattles, and three species in which rattles are absent. Of the last 

 named, the copperhead and moccasin snakes are well known. Of the 

 first, the northern rattlesnake (Fig. 7) is familiar, and unpleasantly 

 abundant in many parts of the country, but is nowhere fierce or in- 

 clined to attack. Fig. 8 is of the common viper, or adder of England 

 and the Continent. 



All the gigantic crushing species are found in regions of torrid 

 temperature. Of these, the Guinea rock or fetich snake (Fig. 10) is 

 allied to the family of pythons already noticed. 



There too are the most terribly fierce of the venomous species, as 

 the fer de lance (Fig. 11); the cobra (Fig. 12), sacred in India, the 

 killing of which with some tribes is considered sacrilege; the haje 

 or spitting-snake of Africa, a hooded species, and allied to the cobra, 

 and the horned puff-adder (Fig. 13), whose poison is used to tip ar- 

 rows by the South-African Bushmen. 



Fig. 8. 



Common Adder of England and the Continent.— (Venomous.) 



The mere recital of their names excites in one unpleasant sensa- 

 tions. Deaths from the bite of serpents in temperate regions which 

 they infest are surprisingly rare. It is otherwise, however, in the 

 tropics, and perhaps no country has so fearful a mortality from the 

 bites of venomous snakes as India. In six provinces, which include 

 Assam and Orissa, with a population of about 121,000,000, 11,416 

 deaths were reported in a single year. This is about one in every 

 10,000 of population, and this is only an approximation to the actual 

 mortality, for many districts sent no returns. A majority of all the 

 deaths from this cause was from cobras ; yet this serpent, as ob- 



