42 Serpents. REPTILES. Viperine Serpents. 
thick, s^vollen-looking body, becoming sliglitly more 
slender towards the tail. The colour is dark olive 
above, and yellowish- white beneath. It is found in 
Bahia, and the hotter parts of Brazil towards the banks 
of the river Amazon, where it feeds upon birds and 
small mammalia, as squirrels, &c. In length it varies 
from three and a half to four and a half feet, with a 
circumference of four inches about the thickest portion 
of the body. 
THE BODROO PAM of India ( Trimesurus viridis ) — 
Plate 4, fig. 2. As the Lance-heads are natives of 
the New World, so the Trimesuri are confined to the 
hot regions of the Old World. They are almost all 
found in Asia. The head of the Bodroo Pam is flat, 
and much broader than the neck, and its mouth is 
large and furnished with very long fangs. It is about 
two feet six inches in length, and is of a fresh green 
colour. The first and almost the only account we have 
of this snake is given to us by Dr. Patrick Russell, in 
his “ History of the Serpents of India.” A specimen 
was brought to him by some natives of the upper 
country from Tranquebar. When he first saw it, he 
tells us, it looked fresh and lively, was very alert, hissed, 
and snapped at everything opposed to it, yet did not 
offer to touch a chicken which was walking about in 
the same room. In preparing for an attack, it wreathed 
its neck and part of its trunk into rather close turns, 
and at the same time retracted its head. “ The remark- 
ably long slender fangs, exposed on opening the mouth, 
betokened its being highly noxious ; but the peasants 
who brought it uffinned that its power of killing 
extended only to the smaller animals — not to dogs or 
sheep ; and that to man its bite caused various dis- 
orders, but never death. 
THE SOHROUCOUCOtlS, belonging to the genus 
Lackesis, are natives of Brazil and Peru. They are 
known also by the name of the Dumb Rattlesnakes, 
from their resemblance to the real Rattlesnakes, with 
the exception of their tail having no rattles, and their 
being therefore incapable of making the noise these 
latter serpents produce by means of that organ. 
THE BRAZILIAN SOUROUCOUCOU {Lachesis muius) 
is one of the best known of all the poisonous snakes of 
that country. It is also the largest, for Spix informs us 
that it sometimes acquires a length of nine or ten feet, 
and a circumference in body of more than twelve inches. 
It is found in tolerable abundance throughout the 
whole of Brazil, inhabiting dark, sombre forests, where 
it keeps concealed under leaves. Its food consists of 
small mammalia, birds, and some kinds of reptiles. 
The bite of this snake is said to be fatal. 
The Cenchrina are also natives of America, but 
appear to be confined to the United States, 
THE WATER VIPER, or Water Moccasin {Cenchris 
piscivorus), is a native of the Carolinas, of the Floridas, 
Alabama, and the tributaries of the river Mississippi, 
as far as Tennessee. It is about two feet in length, and 
five inches in circumference round the body, which is 
very robust and thick, even to the tail, where it con- 
tracts suddeiiljn The tail is short and tliiek, convex, 
and terminates in a horny point. The head is very 
large and triangular, and the eye is large, though it does 
not appear so at first sight, from the projection of the 
superior orbital plate. Catesby, in his “Natural History 
of Carolina,” was the first to describe this snake. “ The 
back and head of this serpent,” he says, “ is brown, the 
belly marked transversely with black and yellow alter- 
nately, as are the sides of the neck. The neck small, 
the head large, armed with the like destructive weapons 
as the rattlesnake, which next to it is reckoned the 
largest of any viper in these parts, and, contrary to 
most other vipers, are very nimble, and particularly 
dexterous in catching fish. In summer great numbers 
of these serpents are seen lying on the branches of 
trees hanging over rivers, from which, at the approach 
of a boat, they drop into the water, and often into the 
boat on the men’s heads. They lie in this manner to 
surprise either birds or fish ; after these last they plunge, 
and pursue them with great swiftness, and catch some 
of a large size, which they carry on shore and swallow 
whole.” Holbrook, in his “ North American Herpe- 
tology,” gives a similar account of this snake, adding a 
few particulars in addition to what has been given 
above by Catesby. He informs us that it is found 
about damp, swampy places, or in water — far from 
which it is never observed. “ In summer numbers of 
these serpents are seen resting on the low branches of 
such trees as overhang the water, into which they 
plunge on the slightest alarm.” Catesby, he thinks, is 
wrong in considering that they select these places in 
order to watch for prey. They merely choose them, 
he says, in order to bask in. the sun, for in situations 
deprived of trees, such as the ditches in rice fields, they 
may be seen basking near these on dry banks. “ They 
are the terror of the negroes that labour about rice 
plantations, where they are dreaded more than the 
rattlesnake, which only bites when irritated, or in self- 
defence, or to secure its prey. The Water Moccasin, on 
the contrary, attacks everything that comes within his 
reach, erecting his head and opening his mouth for 
some seconds before he bites. I have placed,” con- 
tinues Mr. Holbrook, “ in a cage with the Water 
Moccasin several of the harmless snakes at a time ; 
they all evinced the greatest distress, hanging to the 
sides of the cage, and endeavouring by every means 
to escape from the enemy, who attacked them all in turn. 
Two animals of his own species were then thrown into 
the cage ; he seemed instantly aware of the character 
of his new visitors, and became perfectly quiet. Indeed, 
I have often received four or five of these animals in 
safety, after their having peaceably travelled together 
a journey of fifty miles in the same hox. The food of 
the Water Moccasin is such fish as he can overtake — 
and few exceed his velocity in swimming — and what- 
ever small reptiles, as frogs, toads, tadpoles, &c., that 
fall in his way.” 
The species belonging to the second group, or those 
which, instead of a spine at the end of the tail, have 
this organ terminated by a series of plates called a 
rattle, are few in number. Three of these belong to 
the genus Crotalophorus, a genus in which the rattles 
at the end of the tail are few in number and not well 
developed, and consequently make but a feeble noise, 
or even sometimes none at all. 
THE GROUND RATTLESNAKE, or S.mall Rattle- 
snake {Crotalophorus miliaris) is the best known 
