308 
REPTILES. 
[Chap. IX. 
does not appear to be found in Hindostan : no inter- 
mediate forms have been observed in Ceylon. 
Water- Snakes. — The fresh-water snakes, of which 
several species 1 inhabit the still waters and pools, are 
all harmless in Ceylon. A gentleman, who found near 
a river an agglutinated cluster of the eggs of one variety 
(Trojpidophis schistosusf), placed them under a glass 
shade on his drawing-room table, where one by one the 
young reptiles emerged from the shell to the number of 
twenty. 
The sea-snakes of the Indian tropics did not escape 
the notice of the early Greek mariners who navigated 
those seas ; and amongst the facts collected by them, 
iElian has briefly recorded that the Indian Ocean 
produces serpents with flattened tails' 2 , whose bite, he 
adds, is to be dreaded less for its venom than the lacer- 
ation of its teeth. The first statement is accurate, but 
the latter is incorrect, as there is an all but unani- 
mous concurrence of opinion that every species of this 
family of serpents is more or less poisonous. The com- 
pression of the tail noticed by iElian is one of the 
principal characteristics of these reptiles, as their motion 
through the water is mainly effected by its aid, coupled 
with the undulating movement of the rest of the body. 
Their scales, instead of being imbricated like those of 
land-snakes, form hexagons; and those on the belly, 
instead of being scutate and enlarged, are nearly of the 
same size and form as on other parts of the body. 
1 Chersydras granulates, Merr. ; 
Cerberus cinereus, Baud. ; Tropido- 
phis schistosus, Baud. 
2 "nxarets toss ofyav." 2Elia^, 
L. xvi. c. 8. 
iElian speaks elsewhere of fresh- 
water snakes. His remark on 
the compression of the tail shows 
that his informants were aware of 
this speciality in those that inhabit 
the sea. 
