76 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



Three or more of the species inhabiting India and Burmah are 

 of a beautiful leaf-green colour, which changes to dull blue after long 

 immersion in spirit. The commonest of them, T. carmatus, varies 

 remarkably in colouring in the Andaman and Nicobar islands ; if, 

 indeed, the species be quite the same. These grow to over three 

 feet in length. The kindred genus, P. eltopelor, is founded on a single 

 species inhabiting the mountains of Southern India, P. macrokpis, 

 which is remarkable for the very large scales with which its head 

 and body are covered. The Lachesis, with two species, is another 

 kindred genus in South America, in which the end of the tail has 

 four rows of scales underneath. The Calloselasma 7'hodostoma is a 

 very formidable reptile of this same series, which inhabits the Malay 

 countries. It has a remarkably broad head, and grows to three feet 

 or more in length. Dr. Giinther states that " it is one of the most 

 beautiful and most dangerous of venomous snakes. Feeding on 

 frogs, it frequents grassy plains, and approaches gardens and human 

 dwellings. Kuhl was eyewitness to a case where two men, bitten 

 by one and the same snake, expired five minutes after." Another 

 Malayan species is known as the Atropos acouba. The genus Halomys 

 is characteristic of the fauna of Central Asia, the species being found 

 in Tartary, on the northern side of the Himalayas, in China, in 

 Japan, and in Formosa. One of them occurs in the Western Hima- 

 laya, at an altitude of 9,000 feet, and another has been referred to 

 this genus from the mountains of Southern India. The " carawalla" 

 of Ceylon (Hypnale nepd) is likewise found on the mountains of 

 Southern India. It is a small species, but a good deal dreaded, 

 " although," remarks Dr. Giinther, " its bite is but exceptionally fatal 

 to man, and in such cases death does not occur before the lapse of 

 some days. There is therefore some hope of restoring the patient 

 by a timely application of proper remedies." Its crown is more 

 shielded than is usual with Snakes of this family and it varies much 

 in colouring. 



The rest of the Crotalidce are American, and consist of the 

 famous Rattlesnakes and their immediate kindred. In the genus 

 Cenchris the tail ends with a spine, and the tip of the tail has several 

 rows of scales beneath. The well-known Copperhead (C. con- 

 tortrix) belongs to this genus, and the Black Water Viper (C. 

 piscivorns). The last has bred repeatedly in the London Zoological 

 Gardens, and is rather a large species, of very aquatic propensities. 

 " The Copperhead," according to Dekay, " is a vicious reptile, and 

 its venom is justly dreaded, being considered as deadly as that of 

 the Rattlesnake; and an instance is recorded in which a horse, 



