. . . . HIND. Yilan, . . . SerpOntli Or 811111CC8 are. alluded to in the most ancient of the writings and traditions of the world. They are very nnmerous in many parts in the south of Asia, admired yet dreaded by many, but protected and worshipped by other, of the races. The colours of the -backs of such as creep on the ground are generally of a brownish hue, much resembling the soil on which they move. The colours of the Dendrophidre, or tree ' snakes, are of various shades of green, so that, aided by their quiet gliding tnotion, snakes, though numerous, unlem looked for, are seldom seen by any person. But a search in the lewd. promising places will always produce to the naturalist some specimens. The brick's of the water-snakes, the Ilydridai, are also tusually of a brownish colour, from which in the green sea water, or in that of quiet lakes or tatiks, they are detected as readily as the tree and hind snakes escape observance. All snakes have a long bifid tongue, which, usually retracted in a sheath below the windpipe, is capable of rapid and vibrating protrusion through a chink in the rostral shield ; it is moved by means of two long elastic bones extending along the greater Tart of its length in the form of a long V, with the tongue rising perpendicularly froni the angle of the V ; muscles convert these bones into levers, which jerk the tongue up and down with great celerity and freedom of play. This form of tongue is not peculiar to snakes; the large water lizards (Va.ranns), for instance, have this bifid organ still more developed. Harmless snakes have a row of about six to sixteen teeth in each upper jaw, besides generally two rows of palate teeth. In t.110 Ve1101110US kinds the maxillary teeth are generally replaced by a single tubular tooth of variable length, but hardly exceeding a quarter of an inch in an adult cobra, and half an inch in an adult chain-viper (Daboia elegans). The erection of the fang takes place to a very slight extent in the cobra, which is unprovided with any special erective apparatus ; the fang is always reeurved backwards at an angle of about 45°, and received into a depression in the lower lip. In genie of the vipers there is a special crective muscle, but in every case the uncovering of the fang is a passive act AS regards the snake, being effected by the gingival envelope being pushed tip mechanically by the object bitten. The fang is at the anterior extremity of the upper jaw-bone, while the poison gland is situated on the cheek behind the eye ; the poison, on being ejected either by direct muscular action, or by a reflex nervous action shnilar to that excited in the Inman mouth by the idea of eating lemon, proceeds along a duct, which passes below the eye over the jawbone, and terminates at the bottom of the gingival envelope of the fang, and just front of the superior orifice of its canal. There is no continuity between the orifice of the poison duet and that of the poison fang. They are merely in apposition, and the poisonous salivary secretion is directed into the fang by the retraction of the gingival envelope round the fang in the act of biting. Every tooth in the shake's mouth, %%nether simple tooth or poison fang, is enveloped more or less in a gingival envelope, which contains at its base the matrix of a series of other teeth ; these young teeth arc constantly growing, and the eldest of them periodically replaces the fixed tooth, and becomes fixed until it is shed in its turn. This shedding is a gradual process conipared to the shedding of the epidermis, but the two operations coincide in thne, ruul take place about once in two months. The common exceptions are tile cobra and the bringarus. In India the usual snake of the latter genus is Bung:1ms arcuatus, the white-arched bungarus ; it has a white belly, from which pails of white arches cross the black back. In Burma this is replaced by Bungarus fasciatus, the yellow and black-banded bungarus ; it has alternate complete rings of black and yellow. The Hama dryad, Ophiophagus elaps, a member of the Elapidm family, is extremely rare ; it resembles a huge cobra. This family is also distinguished from the rest of the shield-headed or armless colubrine snakes, by the absence of the loreal shield, a small shield usually separating tbe autoeular shield from the posterior nasal, so that there are but two shields instead of three between the eye and the nostril The sea-snakes which have shielded heads are also an exceptional family, being all or nearly all venomous. They
are known from other aquatic snakes by their perpendicularly-flattened tail. A scaly head (that is, the crown covered with scales as ou the rest of the body) is generally the sign of a poisonous snake. The scaly-headed snakes are usually vipers. The Viperidm have usually a high flat head, very distinct at the neck, and broad behind the jaws. They have long, more or less erectile fangs, with an erect pupil. The only one fatal to human life is the chain-viper, Daboia elegans, known by a triple chain of oval black links, and an indistinct yellow on its head. The green tree viper, Trimesurus, is a short, stout snake, very different in build from the long, slender green tree snake ; it is venomous in a very slight degree. As exceptions t,o these general remarks, however, the Erycida! and Acrochordidm have also scaly heads ; a corannon sand snake, Eryx Johnii, might possibly be mistaken for a viper, but its small head is very different from that of the vipers. It is a popular belief that the niale and female cobra are very different in appearance. The origin of this error appears to be as follows : The Ptyas (mucosus or korros), dhrunan in Hindustani, sarai or sara pamboo in Tamil, chera pamboo in Malayalam, lem-we in Burmese, is generally supposed by natives of the south of India and of Burma, to unite with the cobra, producing a very venomous hybrid offspring, of doubtful identity ; hence it is frequently called the male cobra. Ptyas, the dhaman, is indif ferently known as the whip snake, the rat snake, the rock snake in Madras ; whilst in Bengal the name rock snake is usually given to the python. Any snake found near or in the water is usually called a water snake, from ignorance of tbe fact that nearly all snakes can swim, and will readily take to the water if necessary. Indeed, a snake which rejoices in the highly terrestrial name of Psammodynastes pulverulentus, the dusty king of tbe desert, was captured whilst it was swimming across the Rangoon ake. Also, if any word could be more inappro 'ate and deceptive than another, it is the term ood ' as applied to the broad expansion produce‘ by the elevation of tbe cervical ribs of Naga tripudians and Ophio phagus elaps. The native ters used to describe it, putum in Tamil and Malayalam, meaning a cloth, a picture, a map, and phun in Hindustani, both give an idea of breadth and expansion entirely wanting in the terms capella and hood. `-` Naturalists arrange the order of snakes into the two sub-orders, innocuous and venomous colubrine snakes, and the names of these will be found .detailed under the Reptiles. Though the non-setentific world regard all snakes as poisonous, and though many deaths do occur from snake bite, the numbers of poisonous snakes are not great, and comprise species of the genera Aipy surus, Aealyptus, Bungarus, Callophis, Daboia, Disteria, Calloselasma, Echis, Hydrophis, Enhy drina, Halys, Hypnale, Megmrephis, Naja, Ophio phagus, Platurus, Pelamis, Peltopelor, Trimere sums, Xenurelaps ; 18 genera, and about 80 species. Deaths frequently occur from them in the south and east of Asia, because of the difficulty of avoiding them. In the six years 1875 to 1880, the deaths from snake-bites in British India were as under. In 1861 they were 18,670 : 1875, . . . 17,070 I 1878, . . . 16,812 1876, . . . 15,946 1879, . . . 17,388 1877, . . . 16,777 1880, . . . 19,150 Yet they have many enemies. Mr. Bennett, who resided much in the south-east of Ceylon, ascribed the rarity of serpents in the jungle to the abundance of the wild pea - fowl, whose partiality to young snakes renders them the chief destroyers of these reptiles. It is likely, too, that they are killed by the jungle-fowl, for they are frequently eaten by the common barn-door fowl in Ceylon. This is rendered the more probable, by the fact that in those districts where the extension of cultivation and the visits of sportsmen have reduced the /lumbers of the jungle-fowl and pea-fowl, snakes have percept ibly increased. The deer also are enemies of the snakes, and the natives who have had opportunities of watching their encounters, assert that they have seen deer rush upon a serpent, and crush it by leaping on it with all its four feet.