Guide to the gallery of Reptilia and Amphibia in the Department of Zoology of the British Museum (Natural History) / illustrated by 76 text and other figures.

  • British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Guide to the gallery of Reptilia and Amphibia in the Department of Zoology of the British Museum (Natural History) / illustrated by 76 text and other figures. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lower spines of the neck-vertebrae pierce the gullet, on the upper surface of which they form tooth-like knobs adapted for crushing the eggs on which this Snake feeds. An individual of a foot in length is capable of swallowing a pigeon’s egg. Sea-Snakes (.Hydrophiince, 308-313) and the Cobra group Fig. (.Elapinm) form the assemblage of venomous Colubridco known as Proteroglypha (see p. 18), and characterised by the grooving of the front teeth in the maxillary bone, while those behind are solid. In this respect they differ from the Opisthoglypha, in which the reverse condition obtains. Sea-Snakes (fig. 19), of which there are several genera, have the tail, and sometimes the body, compressed, for the purpose of swimming. The scales are small, those on the lower surface being often no larger than the rest; and the pupils of the small eyes are round. These Snakes inhabit tropical seas from the Persian Gulf to Central America, but one species {Bistira semperi) dwells in a fresh-water lake in the Philippines. They are often seen far out at sea, and die if kept long on land. All are viviparous, and feed on fishes, which are killed with their poison. Indian fishermen are occasionally bitten by these Snakes, the bite sometimes proving- fatal. The largest species is the orange and black Hydrus major (308), of which an example is shown. Most of these snakes are coloured very like mackerel, and are thus almost invisible in the sea. The Cobras and Kraits of the Old World, together with the species of the American genus Elaps, represent the Elapince, or second sub- family of the group Proteroglypha, which is distinguished from the Hydrophiince, by the cylindrical tail. There are numerous genera of Elapinm ; and the sub-family includes the majority of Australian Snakes and all the venomous ones. The various species of Cobras (an abbreviation of the Portuguese Cobra di capello—“the snake with the hood ”) are characterised by the power of distending the neck into a hood-like expansion by an outward and forward movement of the A Sea-Snake (Hydro- phisplaturus) from the Indian Ocean. (No. 312-) Gases 14-15.