18 
THE THAN ATOPH1DIA OP INDIA. 
effects of their poison are less dangerous tlian those of other 
venomous snakes, and some experiments I have made with 
T. monticola would lead me to confirm their statement. The 
symptoms are severe pain and swelling of the bitten part or of 
the whole limb, with nausea, sickness, depression, fever, and 
then sloughing of the bitten part, after which recovery is 
rapid. In weak or sickly individuals fatal results might occur, 
but such cases are exceptional. 
In the long list of deaths from snake-bite in India in 1869, 
a few cases are recorded from Trimeresuri bites. 
The Trimeresuri are said to be naturally sluggish, and are apt 
to lie quietly hidden by the leaves or branches they resemble in 
colour until disturbed, when they are sometimes fierce and 
aggressive, bite savagely, and make a hissing sound as they 
prepare to strike, which they do by first drawing back the head 
and anterior part of the body, and then darting it forward with 
great rapidity. They, like the Daboia, are said to vibrate the 
tail at the same time; this is, I imagine, when the tail is not 
employed in clasping a branch of the tree, in which, as many 
of them are arboreal, they are most frequently found. Their 
food is said to consist of small birds, mammals, and tree and 
other frogs; in search of the latter the arboreal species are said 
to descend to the earth. 
According to some naturalists, Gunther and others, they are 
viviparous ; but I am told that Mr. Nicholson of the Royal 
Artillery at Eangoon, who has had opportunities of studying 
their habits, states positively that they are strictly oviparous. 
Of this I have no personal knowledge. 
I am indebted to Dr. E. Stoliczka, of the Geological Survey 
of India, for the following valuable notes on the habits and 
distribution of the Trimeresuri and other poisonous snakes :—■ 
“ T. gramineus I only saw once going up to Nynee Tal, a 
little beyond Kalidunga, in the low hills. The specimen was 
on a bush, between thick foliage. 
“ T. erythrurus I found very common about the limestone 
hills near Moulmein. They are exactly of the same green colour 
as the foliage amongst which they hide themselves. I saw small 
specimens very often on low plants. It was on some umbelli¬ 
ferous plant, growing about two feet, with a spreading crown 
of leaves above. The Trimeresurus had his prehensile tail 
wound below the top round the stalk, and was lying above on 
the leaf crown in a simple or double coil. They were very 
sluggish, and did not make the least attempt at moving off 
when I came near, and even took them off the plant; neither 
did they offer to bite, unless pressed with a stick to the ground. 
But when they once got excited they turned round furiously. 
One had broken both his fangs in striking them into the stick 
with which I pressed him to the ground. 
“ In Penang I got also T. erythrurus in a similar position as at 
Moulmein, on the large ferns that grow there. In the Wellesley 
Province I caught one on a low bush near the mangrove swamp. 
“ T. carinatus I got on the north side of the road going 
up to Simla, and another specimen I found in the valley below 
Subatlioo ; both were on low bushes on the road, and appeared 
equally sluggish and lazy as the Moulmein T. erythrurus. 
“ I believe the Trimeresuri chiefly live on insects. I never 
found any vertebrate food in their stomach, though I daresay 
they do not despise it when they get hold of it without great 
difficulty. Whether they are more active at night, or, in fact, 
whether their habits are at all nocturnal, I cannot say. I should 
doubt it, though from the nature of their pupil they would 
appear to be so, but I think their habits are only crepuscular. 
wounded by this species suffer fearfully from pain and swelling, but he never heard 
of a fatal case.— Transact. Zool. Boc,. Lond., vol. ii. p. 307. 
Blyth says, in Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1851, p. 524: “A small 
T. gramineus from Sylhet had bitten a labouring man, but the wound merely caused 
a painful swelling of the arm, which however did not prevent the patient from re¬ 
turning to his work after a few hours — i. e., in the afternoon of the same day. 
“ I did not observe Callophis alive, but from their external 
character of body they cannot be tree-snakes. I suppose their 
habits are similar to those of Bungarus, but their more vivid 
and variegated colouring would, I think, indicate a more diurnal 
than nocturnal habit. The peculiarly elongated poison glands 
have only been observed in C. intestinalis and bivirgatus, both 
of which have very small heads. I am not aware that any 
of the other species have been examined. 
“ As far as general distribution of all the Crotalidce is con¬ 
cerned, they must be considered as characteristic of the Malay 
fauna; which is that of the Malay Peninsula, Burmah, Cachar, and 
Assam (here towards the east becoming Indo-chinese), Eastern 
Bengal, almost as far west as the Uooghly, the base of the 
Eastern and Central Himalaya, with the last remnants probably 
as far west as the Sutlej ; though the Malayan character is 
strongly diminished west of Nepal. In South India, the Malabar 
coast, with a few patches of higher hills, and the greater part 
of Ceylon, must have had originally a Malay fauna. As far as 
I know from the records of localities, Trimeresuri are. found 
only in these localities of Malay fauna. 
“ Haigs I should be inclined to consider as the representative 
of the Vipers of the Old World; the genus characterizes the tem¬ 
perate climates of the hills; but when Gunther says that they are 
only found on the northern side of the Himalaya, he is incorrect. 
Of course he has no notion of the climatal conditions, and 
strangely also, not of the geographical situation of the hills. 
What we call northern side of the Himalayan slopes is Thibet, 
that is, north of the central highest chain, and in Thibet there 
are no snakes until we come down into the lower Indus and 
into the less elevated country of Central Asia. 
“One thing is decidedly noticeable in the colour of these 
snakes ; that they adapt themselves to the locality in which they 
live. The species of Halys are dark-coloured, like Vipera berus of 
Europe, and are found on the ground. The dark-coloured Trime¬ 
resuri , as for instance, T. monticola, I met once only going up to 
Nynee Tal on an old stump of a tree. The T. convictus of 
Penang is also met on the ground, and so also did I see the 
Nicobar T. mutabilis, only near the ground between shrubs. 
The green Trimeresuri are generally found higher upon trees 
or plants, and also possess as a rule a longer and more com¬ 
pressed body. 
“ Daboia I should call a characteristic Indian Viper, and the 
same applies to Echis, though this latter is clearly of African type. 
“ The Callophides belong to the Malay fauna, like the Trime¬ 
resuri ; their head-quarters are the Malay Peninsula; the same 
is the case with Ophiophagus. 
“ I think as most of the Viperine snakes are viviparous, it 
seems, not improbable that the Trimeresuri are also viviparous : 
but of course without direct observation we can form no certain 
opinion on such a point. 
“ I do not know any external characters for distinguishing 
the sex, and have not heard that any records exist on that point. 
In my paper on Tropidonotus platyceps, I have noted that the 
males have stronger keeled scales than the females, but 
whether that will be confirmed in other species further obser¬ 
vations must show. 
“ Trimeresurus erythrurus I got from Moulmein, Wellesley 
Province, Penang, and Java. 
“ T. purpureus. — Steindachner says it also occurs in the Nico- 
bars. I did not get it there. 
“ T. mutabilis and cantoris are from the Nicobars and Anda¬ 
mans ; they are not known from other localities. 
“ T. convictus is as yet a unique specimen from Penang hills. 
“I believe T. erythrurus has been got from Assam; T.gramineus 
and T. carinatus occur in Burmah, Assam, Cachar, Bengal, and 
the North-west Himalaya as far as the Sutlej (along the Hills), 
but I do not know of any recorded specimen from further 
westward. Perhaps Anderson may have got some for the Mu- 
