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THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



CHAPTER X. 



SERPENTS— LIZARDS— FROGS AND TOADS. 



Serpents: Rarity of Venomous Serpents — Habits and External Characteristics of Serpents — 

 The Labarri — The Trigonocephalus — Antidotes to the Poison of Serpents— Sucking out 

 the Venom — The Poison-Fangs — The Bush-Master — The Echidna Ocellata— Rattlesnakes 

 — Their Enemy the Hog — The Cobra de Capello — The Haje — The Cerastes — Boas and 

 Pythons — The Boa-constrictor — The Water Boa — Fascination by Snakes — Henderson's 

 Argument against It — Thorpe's Reasons in its Favor — Du Chaillu on the Subject — Enemies 

 of Serpents — Tlie Secretary Bird — The Adjutant Bird— The Mongoos — Serpents Eating 

 Serpents — The Locomotion of Serpents — Anatomy of their Jaws — A Serpentine Meal — 

 Pet Serpents — Tree Snakes — Water Snakes — Stories of Enormous Snakes — Du Chaillu's 

 Big Snake — Wallace's Bigger One. — Lizards: The Geckoe — Anatomy of its Feet — Their 

 Wide Distribution — The Anolis — Its Combativeness — Tlie Chameleon — Its Habits, Change 

 of Color, and Characteristics — The Iguana — The Teju — Water Lizards — Flying Dragons — 

 The Basilisk. — Frogs and Toads: The Pipa Frog — Tree Frogs — Wallace's Flying Frog — 

 The Bahia Toad— The Giant Toad— The Musical Toad. 



N penetrating for the first time into a tropical forest, the traveler is moved by 



V_y many conflicting emotions. This luxuriance of vegetation, this abundance of 

 blossoms, unite in raising the soul to the fullest enjoyment of the moment; and yet 

 the heart is, at the same time, chilled with vague fears, that mix like a discordant 

 sound with the harmonies of this sylvan world. For in the hollows of the tangled 

 roots and in the dense underwood of the forest a brood of noxious reptiles loves to 

 conceal itself, and who knows whether a snake, armed with poisonous fangs, may not 

 dart forth from the rustling foliage. Gradually, however, these reflections wear 

 away, and time and experience convince one that the snakes in the tropical woods are 

 hardly more to be feared than in our own forests. These reptiles are, indeed, far 

 from being of so frequent occurrence as is generally believed ; and on meeting with a 

 snake, there is every probability of its belonging to some harmless species, which show 

 themselves much more frequently by day, and are by far more numerous. Even in 

 India and Ceylon, where serpents are said to abound, they make their appearance so 

 cautiously that the surprise of long residents is invariably expressed at the rarity with 

 which they are to be seen. Dr. Russell, who particularly studied the serpents of 

 India, found that, out of forty-three species which he himself examined, not more 

 than seven were found to possess poisonous fangs; and Davy, whose attention was 

 carefully directed to the snakes of Ceylon, came to the conclusion that but four Out 

 of the twenty species he could collect were venomous, and that of these only two 

 were capable of inflicting a wound likely to be fatal to man. 



Sir E. Tennent, who frequently performed journeys of two to five hundred miles 

 through the jungle without seeing a single snake, never heard, during his long resi- 



