308 



EEPTILES. 



[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 

 (Tropidophis schistosus?), 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 Chersydrus granulatus, Merr. ; 

 Cerberus cinereus, Baud. ; Tropido- 

 phis schistosus, Bated. 



2 " UKareTs ras oi5pa9." JElian, 

 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. 



