50 
Seepents. REPTILES. Colubkinb Serpents. 
poison gland is also less developed than in the true 
venomous serpents, forming a narrow pear-shaped sac. 
The skin which covers the body, is very loose and 
easily detached, and tlie scales upon it are generally 
small, in some so much so, that when the skin is dis- 
tended the body looks as if deprived of its epidermis. 
There is a peculiarity in the structure of the lung (for 
there is only one) in sea-snakes which adapts them for 
their method of living. It is a long narrow canal, 
swollen out in some parts of its course into tolerably 
sized sacs ; and as it extends as low down as near the 
extremity of the intestine, it fulfils at once both the 
function of an organ of respiration and a swimming 
bladder. 
Sea-serpents were known to the ancients, but unfor- 
tunately they often confounded with them various fishes 
of an elongated eel-shaped body. They seem to be 
confined to the intertropical seas, or those in the neigh- 
bourhood of the tropics. They are sometimes found in 
the open ocean at great distances from land, but in 
general they appear to prefer living near the shore, or in 
the mouths of large rivers where they find an abundant 
supply o'^ food ; such places as the Sunderbunds which 
form the delta of the Ganges. All the species belonging 
to this family, without exception, are venomous, though 
some naturalists have asserted the contrary. Differ- 
ences of opinion, too, exist with regard to their nature 
and disposition ; several naturalists and travellers assert- 
ing them to be of a gentle and peaceable temper, while 
others maintain the opposite. Dr. Kussell found in 
one or two species, that no provocation could excite 
them to bite. M. Lesson, after inclosing them in 
vessels with fowls, was not able to make them attack 
the birds. M. Siebold, on the testimony of Schlegel, 
asserts that the pelagic serpents are not of a fierce dis- 
])osition, and that during his voyage from Batavia to 
Japan, he has caught many with a hand net, landed 
them into the boat, and that the sailors handled them 
without fear or any had effects. Professor Reinwardt, 
who has frequently met with these serpents, confirms 
Siebold’s account of their quiet, gentle disposition. Dr. 
Cantor, on the contrary, who had abundant oppor- 
tunities in India of seeing them, declares that they are 
highl}’’ venomous and dangerous. After taking notice 
of the opinions mentioned above, he says, “ an asser- 
tion like this, may easily mislead travellers, who by 
carelessly handling animals provided with weapons of 
the most dangerous description, are, if wounded, certain 
to pay with their life for their temerity. I must there- 
fore from my own experience, assert that those species 
which I have observed in the Bay of Bengal and the 
Gangetic estuaries, are of very ferocious habits, as well 
in as out of water.” 
Their motion in the water is very active and grace- 
ful, and is described as being a sort of gliding on the 
surface, when the sea is calm, raising from time to time 
their head above the wave, perhaps to breathe. They 
are able swimmers, and their movements are executed 
byrepeated strokes of the tail from righttoleft, succeeded 
by a lateral and undulatory motion of other parts of the 
body. At times their agility is described as being 
extreme, and their swimming most rapid. When 
removed from the sea, however, they become blinded. 
by the light contracting the pupil ; and then, in addition 
to the difficulty which they experience whilst attempt- 
ing to support their sharply-keeled bodies on dry land, 
their movements become just as uncertain and mal- 
adroit as they are nimble and swift in their own element. 
Taken from the sea, and placed on dry ground or in 
fresh water, they soon die. 
The size of these serpents varies in the different 
species. Some are not more than two feet and a half 
long, whilst others reach a length of five feet. The 
females are ovoviviparous, but the sexes cannot be 
distinguished externally. These sea-serpents are 
usually of a yellowish colour, shading sometimes to a 
green, sometimes to a blue, or to white, and most 
frequently relieved by numerous blackish bands, or by 
large lozenge-shaped spots disposed in a transverse 
manner along the back. In the young the colours are 
generally of a brighter hue than the adults, and these 
feed upon small floating Crustacea. 
THE BLACK-BACKED PEI AMIS (Pelamis hicolor), 
or the Nalla-whalagellee pam — represented in 
Plate 4, fig. 5, and fig. 13 annexed — being common 
in all the parts of the sea frequented by sea-snakes, is 
perhaps the one best known in European collections. 
It is about two feet four inches in length, and about 
three inches in circumference in the thickest part 
The skin is very loosely attached to the body, and is 
uniformly covered with small hexagonal scales disposed 
in such a manner as to. resemble the stones of a pave- 
ment. The body is strong and thick, of a cylindrical 
form in the anterior part, but becoming compressed pos- 
teriorly, and terminating in a short, thin, flat tail, of a 
Fig. 13. 
The Black-backed Pelamis (Pelamis bicolor). 
lanceolate form, and broadest at its extremity. The 
head is long, compressed, and projecting into an obtuse 
beak. The mouth is large, and the eyes are lateral 
and of good size. The head and beak are of a black 
colour, and the sides and belly yellow, with some 
obscure, black, round spots towards the tail, which is 
singularly spotted with white, black, and yellow. This 
species is the most widely diffused of all the Pelagic 
serpents. It is common on the coast of Coromandel, 
Pondicherry, Malabar, and Bay of Bengal. It has 
been met with on the coasts of Java, Borneo, New 
Guinea, in the Sea of the Moluccas, near the Celebes, 
