COLUBRINE GROUP. 
205 
in that inferior spines are developed only in the vertebrae of the anterior half of 
the backbone, and are further characterised by the nasal bones being fully as large 
as the prefrontals. The preceding group are more or less aquatic in their habits, 
but those of the present assemblage are terrestrial or arboreal. The pigmy snakes 
have the hinder borders of the shields on the lower surface of the body entire, 
the front lower teeth larger than the hinder ones, the eyes relatively small, and 
no internasal or temporal shields on the head. The head is not distinct from the 
neck, each nostril is pierced in a very small nasal shield, the body is cylindrical 
with the smooth scales arranged in thirteen rows, and there are two rows of shields 
on the lower aspect of the tail. 
These snakes are represented by some thirty species, their headquarters being 
the islands of Java, Sumatra, and Borneo. The figured species (Calamaria linncei) 
is from Java. They are all of small size, frequently not exceeding a foot in length; 
and they are in the habit of hiding themselves among stones, beneath fallen tree- 
trunks, or in grass. Their small dimensions, together with the relatively narrow 
cleft of the mouth, and a want of dilatibility in the throat and body, indicate that they 
do not prey upon other reptiles. Gentle and harmless themselves, these snakes are 
often attacked and killed by craits and other venomous members of their own tribe. 
On account of the well-known European smooth snake (Coronella 
Sling-Snakes. 
loevis ) being included among them, we mention as a second genus of 
this group the sling-snakes, of which there are about twenty known species ranging 
over Europe, Western Asia, Africa, and America, while one ( Gbrachyura) occurs in 
India. They belong to a group of genera in which the whole of the lower teeth are 
nearly equal in length; while they are specially distinguished by the presence of 
from twelve to twenty teeth in the hinder upper jawbone, which increase in size 
towards the back of the series. The head is short, and scarcely distinct from the 
neck; the eye being rather small, with a round pupil, and the head-shields normal. 
The body is cylindrical, and covered with smooth scales arranged in from fifteen 
to twenty-five rows, and furnished with pits at their tips; the tail is of moderate 
length; and whereas the shields on the inferior aspect of the body are rounded, 
those beneath the tail are arranged in a double series. 
The smooth snake, which attains a length of about 25 inches, is very variable 
in coloration, but the ground-colour of the upper-parts is generally brown. The 
most distinctive features are a large dark spot on the neck, often extending into 
a stripe, and two rows of dark brown spots arranged in pairs, and running down 
the body; there is also a dark stripe passing through the eye and the side of the 
neck, while the under-parts are either steely blue, or reddish yellow and white, in 
some cases spotted with black. This snake is found over the greater part of 
Europe, and is occasionally met with in some of the southern counties of England. 
Although now and then found in damp or swampy localities, it frequents dry stony 
places where there is plenty of sunshine, resorting sometimes to old stone bridges 
and heaps of building material. Like its congeners, this snake is chiefly terrestrial 
in its habits; in disposition it is fierce, and its prey consists of other snakes and 
lizards. In the end of August or beginning of September the smooth-snake lays 
from three to thirteen eggs, which are so far developed that the included young 
almost immediately break the shells and escape. 
