38 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



to the natives appear chiefly to have happened at night, when the 

 reptiles, having been surprised or trodden on, inflicted the wound 

 in self-defence. For these reasons the Cingalese, when obliged to 

 leave their houses in the dark, carry a stick with a loose ring, the 

 noise of which, as they strike it on the ground, is sufficient to warn 

 the snakes to leave their path." 



In some parts of the vast Indian region the natives regard the 

 innocuous Chameleon as venomous ; in other parts various Geckos 

 or other Lizards. In Bengal there is a current notion regarding a 

 terrifically poisonous Lizard, which is termed the bis-cobra, but 

 which has no existence except in the imagination of the natives — 

 who bring the young of the Monitors and occasionally other well- 

 known Lizards as specimens of the object of their dread. Again, 

 the little Burrowing Snakes (Tyfthlops), which, superficially, have 

 much the appearance of earth-worms, are there popularly regarded 

 as highly poisonous, though not only are they harmless, but physically 

 incapable of wounding the human skin. Strangers who are little 

 versed in zoology are commonly led astray by such errors on the 

 part of natives of those countries, and, unfortunately, there is a 

 number of stock vernacular names which are applied to very different 

 species in different localities. Thus, Europeans in India are familiar 

 with the appellation " Carpet Snake," as denoting a very deadly 

 reptile, but nobody can there point out what the Carpet Snake really 

 is ; and the one most generally supposed to bear that name is a 

 small innocuous Snake (Lycodon aulicus), which is common about 

 human dwellings. In the Australian colony of Victoria, however, 

 the appellation Carpet Snake is bestowed upon a terribly venomous 

 species (Hoplocephalus curtus) ; while in the neighbouring colony of 

 New South Wales, a harmless and even useful creature (Morelia 

 spilotes) is habitually known as the Carpet Snake. 



With regard to the poison of venomous Snakes, attention has 

 lately been directed to the virtue of ammonia or volatile alkali. 

 This should be administered internally, mixed with alcoholic spirit 

 and water, in repeated doses ; and it should also be injected into a 

 vein — about one drachm of the liquor ammonia of the shops being 

 mixed with two or three times that quantity of water. The patient 

 should be kept moving as much as possible, and the effects of a 

 galvanic battery should also be tried in cases where animation is 

 nearly or quite suspended. By these means it is asserted that quite 

 recently some very remarkable cures have been effected in Australia. 

 The Ophidia have many enemies among mammalia, such as the 

 veil-known Mungoose, also swine, and various ruminating quadrupeds, 



