INNOCUOUS SEKPENTS. 
177 
They have a tail strongly prehensile, and compressed like 
their trunk. They want the crochets at the anus. They 
have rounded heads ; the eyes are extremely small, a little 
vertical, the pupil orbicular, the nostrils are tubular, near 
the top of the muzzle, and directed forward or upward. 
All their bodies are covered with very minute scales, not 
imbricated, mucronated ; and there is on the middle line 
of the belly a projecting ridge, bristling with scales. The 
upper part of the orbit is formed by an apophysis of the 
posterior frontal bone. Teeth as in the genuine Boa. 
They are essentially aquatics, inhabit the East Indies, and 
have very sombre colours. Lung prolonged to the very 
anus. We know only two species of this genus. 
1 . Acrochordus Javanicus. — Found in the rivers of 
Java. Length eight feet, and of a very clumsy form ; 
nostrils directed forward ; dark brown, charged with nu- 
merous marblings ; cranium of a bizarre shape, from the 
shortness of the anterior part, the smallness of the mastoid 
bones, and the great length of the tympanites. 
2. Acrochordus fasciatus. — Form much more slen- 
der, and size far less than the preceding species ; scales of 
the lips more developed ; nostrils almost vertical ; colour 
brown, with pale bands on the sides. Found in India, as 
far as New Guinea. 
The Acrochordus comprehends the genus Chersydre 
of Cuvier, established after specimens of middle age. To 
the same category belong also the Acrochordus fascia- 
tus and DUBius of Shaw, the Hydrus granulatus of 
Schneider, which Daudin has converted into a Pelamis. 
— -ScHLEGEL, Vol. ii. 
[The Acrochordus has been caught at Pondichery, in 
Timor, and Sumatra. The specimen of A. fasciatus in 
the British Museum is only 18 inches. — Tr.] 
