Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeutics. A. Calmette

      Fig. 22.—Vipera aspis. (Natural size.) (From the Forest of Fontainebleau.)

      Vipera latastii.

      Intermediate between V. aspis and V. ammodytes. Snout less turned up into a corneous appendage than in the latter. Head covered with small, smooth, or feebly keeled, subimbricate scales, among which an enlarged frontal shield may sometimes be distinguished; 5–7 longitudinal series of scales between the supraocular shields; 9–13 scales round the eyes; 2 or 3 series between the eyes and the labials; nasal shield entire, separated from the rostral by a naso-rostral. Body scales in 21 rows, strongly keeled; 125–147 ventrals; 32–43 subcaudals.

      Coloration grey or brown above, with a longitudinal zigzag band, usually spotted with white; head with or without spots on the vertex; black streak behind the eyes; ventral surface grey, spotted with black and white; tip of the tail usually yellow or with yellow spots.

      Total length, 550–610 millimetres; tail 80–85.

      Habitat: Spain and Portugal.

      Vipera ammodytes.

      (Fig. 21, 3 and 4).

      Snout terminated in front by a horny appendage covered with 10–20 small scales; vertical diameter of the eyes less than the distance separating them from the mouth; upper surface of the head covered with small, smooth, or feebly keeled scales, among which an enlarged frontal and a pair of parietal shields are sometimes distinguishable; 5–7 longitudinal series of scales between the supraoculars; 10–13 scales round the eyes; two series between the eyes and the labials; nasal shield entire, separated from the rostral by a naso-rostral. Body scales in 21–23 rows, strongly keeled; 133–162 ventrals; 24–38 subcaudals.

      Coloration grey, brown, or reddish above, with a zigzag dorsal band, usually spotted with white; black streak behind the eyes; belly grey or violaceous; end of the tail yellow, orange, or coral-red.

      Total length, 550–640 millimetres; tail 70–80.

      Habitat: Southern Tyrol, Carinthia, Styria, Hungary, Danubian principalities and kingdoms, Turkey. Does not pass beyond the 48th parallel of North Latitude.

      This viper loves very sunny places, and hillsides planted with vines. It rarely hibernates.

      In districts in which it is plentiful, it is only necessary to light a fire at night in order to attract this species in swarms; this is the best method of taking it.

      Its food consists of small rodents, lizards, and birds.

B.—ASIA, DUTCH INDIES, AND PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

       Table of Contents

      The species of snakes most dangerous to man are found in the warmer regions of Asia. India especially is infested by the famous Cobra-di-Capello (Naja tripudians), which possesses the highly remarkable faculty of dilating its neck in the form of a hood when irritated, and whose sculptured image appears on almost all the Hindu monuments.

      We shall describe in a separate section (see below, F.) the Hydrophiinæ, or Sea-snakes, a large number of species of which frequent the shores of the Indian Ocean, the Strait of Malacca, the China Sea, the Moluccas, Celebes, and North Australia. In the case of certain species the area of distribution includes the whole of the tropical and sub-tropical zones of the Pacific Ocean, as far as the West Coast of America. It is therefore preferable to group them together for the purpose of comprehensive study.

      Besides the above, the continent of Asia harbours a multitude of poisonous snakes belonging to the two Families Colubridæ and Viperidæ.

      The genera and species belonging to these are so diverse, that we must confine ourselves to mentioning the essential characters of those that present most interest.

      (a) Bungarus.

      Head hardly distinct from the neck; eyes small, with round or vertically elliptic pupils; nostril between two nasal shields. Two large poison-fangs followed by one or two small, slightly grooved teeth (fig. 23). Scales smooth, oblique, in 13–17 rows, enlarged and hexagonal in shape on the vertebral column; ventral scales round. Tail relatively short; subcaudal scales in one or two rows.

      Two very dangerous snakes found in India and Indo-China belong to this genus, B. fasciatus and B. candidus (var. cæruleus). Both are fairly common. In Ceylon B. ceylonicus is met with, and in South China B. candidus (var. multicinctus). The length of these snakes is from 1,000–1,500 millimetres. The back is compressed in the shape of a keel. The neck is not dilatable.