WHIP SNAKES. 49 



cervical vertebrae. The object of the latter is to crush the shells 

 of birds' eggs, upon which the snakes in question habitually feed. 



Of the more characteristic Tree Snakes, the Dendrophidce have 

 the body and tail much compressed, or very slender and elongated ; 

 the head generally lengthened, narrow, flat, and distinct from the 

 slender neck ; the snout rather long, obtuse or rounded in front ; 

 cleft of the mouth wide ; and the eye of moderate size, or large, 

 with round pupil. These are diurnal Snakes, which live entirely 

 upon trees, where they prey chiefly on arboreal lizards and frogs. 

 Species of them inhabit all tropical countries. They are generally 

 of great beauty; the Indian Chrysopelea ornata is excessively so, being 

 variegated with yellow and crimson upon a black ground, but the 

 crimson soon fades when a specimen is immersed in spirit. Others 

 are very variable in their colouring, as the African Bucephalus capensis 

 and the Indian Dendrophis picta. 



The next family of JDryiophidce, or the Whip Snakes, have a still 

 more slender and elongated body, which has been aptly compared to 

 the thong of a whip. The head is very narrow and long, with taper- 

 ing snout, ending in a protruded rostral shield, which is sometimes 

 modified into a flexible appendage ; the eyes are of moderate size, 

 and all the Asiatic species have the pupil of the eye horizontally 

 linear, and a long fang-like tooth in the middle of the maxillary. 

 The whole of this group are provided with a posterior grooved 

 tooth. They are chiefly nocturnal, and their movements are wonder- 

 fully rapid and graceful among the branches of trees. They are 

 numerous almost everywhere in tropical countries. In general 

 the various Whip Snakes are of a bright leaf-green colour, with 

 two white stripes on the belly, so that they are difficult to discern 

 among the foliage. In the genus Langaha, which is peculiar to 

 Madagascar, the muzzle is elongated into a fleshy appendage, 

 which is covered with small scales, constituting about one-third 

 of the total length of the head. This appendage is dentated in 

 one species (Z. crista-galli), and not so in another (Z. nasutd). In 

 the Indian genus, Passerita, the snout is long and pointed, termi- 

 nating in a flexible appendage. The name of Whip Snake is 

 applied by Anglo-Indians to all of the species of Dendrophidx and 

 of DryiophidcB ; and the erroneous notion prevails that they are 

 highly venomous, and that they spurt venom into people's eyes. 

 The same is believed in South Africa of the Bucephalus capensis. 

 Even Gordon Cumming asserts that one night a snake which his 

 servant had tried to kill with his loading-rod flew up at his eye, 

 and "spat poison into it. Immediately," he adds, "I washed it 



E 



