CHAPTER LV. 



REPTILES. 



Leaving the smaller and less well known mammalia tilF 

 a more convenient season, observers of wild life in China 

 find ample scope for their land and water studies in the many 

 species of reptiles in which the country abounds. Here it 

 will be possible only to glance at the more prominent and 

 offer such comment as personal observation suggests. Books 

 on natural history need not to be very old to be innocent of 

 all knowledge of the Chinese alligator, the existence of which 

 was not even suspected in Europe till within recent times. 

 During my residence in Shanghai there have been three 

 occasions, if I remember rightly, when alligators have been 

 found in the river or on its banks. The biggest measured 

 but 8 ft. In one instance some six or eight were said to have 

 been brought here by a Siamese barque, the captain of 

 of which thought to dispose of them to the Chinese. Failing 

 in this he turned them adrift in the river. It was during the 

 hot weather, and some timid swimmers gave up their 

 evening plunge in consequence. The rest of us kept on and, 

 so far as I know, nobody ever came to close quarters with 

 any of the saurians except ashore. One was caught in 

 the Old Dock, and another, which had so far forgotten 

 himself as to be found in the very early morning in Broad- 

 way, was also taken. The species seems to be entirely of the 

 fish-eating kind. 



With regard to snakes, the Chinese not merely assert, 

 but firmly stick to the assertion, that there are certain kinds 

 of snakes with feet, a survival here of a similar old belief in 

 Europe that, before the little episode in the Garden, before 

 "Man's first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden 

 tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all 

 our woe," the serpent stood upright. I used to combat the feet 

 idea as quite nonsensical. But many years ago as the result of 

 a little incident at the Hills, I ceased to wonder and con- 

 tradict. I was in search of rare ferns one day on the 

 hillside, when I saw moving swiftly through the undergrowth 

 what I took to be a new snake. It was only about 18 inches 

 long, with a body thickness of about the size of one's little 

 finger. I killed and examined it. Sure enough there were 



