the skull of the Python, and clearly shows the formidable array of fangs.

In each ramus, or branch of the lower jaw, there is but a single row, as seen in the following lateral view of the skull of the same Python. In this view, the suture dividing each ramus of the lower is also exhibited, as well as the tympanic bone, with which the jaw is articulated.

In poisonous Serpents, such as the Rattlesnake, the Cobra, the Viper, and others, the teeth are somewhat differently arranged. It is usual to hear persons talk of the Serpent stinging: the Serpent, however, has no sting; the fatal wound is produced by a bite.

If we examine the jaws of a poisonous Serpent, we

PYTHON.

shall find the bones forming the upper jaw to be small,

and freely moveable upon an osseous peduncle, (the

external pterygoid process of the sphenoid bone,) directed backwards. In each branch of the upper jaw, is a long, recurved, pointed tooth, traversed by a canal, leading from a large gland, situated beneath the eye. Thus the fluid secreted by this gland, passes through the tube into the bottom of the wound which the poisonfang inflicts.

When not required for use, these fangs lie concealed in a fold of the gum; but when about to bite, the Snake raises them up, and in the act of biting, compresses the poison glands by means of a peculiar muscle for the purpose, and so instils a few drops of the deadly fluid into the puncture. These are the only teeth truly seated in the upper jaw; the others above are ranged on each side, along the bones of the palate. The branches forming the lower jaw are slender, and but partially furnished with teeth.

The annexed figure, a lateral view of the skull of the Rattlesnake, will render the above details intelligible.

There is something more than usually repulsive in the aspect of poisonous

SKULL OF RATTLESNAKE.

Serpents their thick, broad head, their wide jaws, armed with horrible poison-fangs, together with their brilliant eyes, give them a ferocious expression; and man and beast instinctively recoil from their presence.

It is, however, much to be doubted, whether all poisonous Serpents have the peculiar fangs we have described: many species, destitute of these fangs, have back teeth of great size, and grooved, and possess a large maxillary gland; and such Snakes are considered, in the countries they inhabit, to be exceedingly poisonous : the truth of this opinion is said to be too often proved by the sad experience of the natives, and has been

confirmed by the direct experiments of naturalists of great eminence.

It is in the hotter regions of the globe, the great nursery of the Reptiles, that the Ophidia abound. There, tangled forests, impenetrable jungles, morasses teeming with luxuriant vegetation, and mouldering ruins overgrown with brushwood and creeping plants, are their favourite places of abode. There they swarm; there the gigantic Python rears his resplendent form; and there, thousands of every hue and size astonish or alarm the traveller.

The naturalist, then, who wishes to study personally the habits and instincts of this dreaded race, must betake himself to a tropical climate, where one species or another will arrest his attention wherever he goes. Some he sees, slender as whipcord, and of great length, twined around the boughs and twigs of trees and shrubs; their tints amalgamating with the colour of the foliage which conceals them: rapidly and silently they glide among the branches, even to the tops of the highest trees, in pursuit of insects, and of eggs, or the young of birds. Of these slender, arboreal Snakes are several genera, as Dendrophis, Dryinus, and Dryophis. Others he beholds darting along the ground; they cross his path, and plunge amidst the jungle, ere his eye can catch their colours; and a loud hiss of anger warns him not to follow. Let him take his way along the mazes of the river, or track the borders of the lake; there may he mark the mighty Boa, its tail twined around a tree, or mouldering log, and its body floating on the surface of the water, in undulating curves, or half hidden amidst the aquatic herbage, as it lurks in ambush, till evening brings the deer, or antelope, to drink. Sudden as the lightning's flash, the monster envelopes the helpless prey in his heavy folds, and straining, crushes every bone to pieces. When the last feeble efforts of the victim have ceased, the Snake, slowly uncoiling, proceeds to

gorge the carcass, swallowing it by degrees; while the jaws, distended by the effort, are reeking with saliva.

*

Such are the spectacles which the naturalist in these regions may witness; but he may experience danger from the huge Hamadryas, Bungarus, or Cobra; Serpents formidable, not only from their size, but from their poison fangs, which render them far more terrible than the Boa, which is to be dreaded only for its strength and impetuosity.

Were all Snakes poisonous, their existence would be a sore evil; they would be the scourge of the countries which are tenanted by them: happily, however, all are not dangerous, either in consequence of their vast powers, or of their venom. Multitudes are harmless, at least, as far as man is concerned; and many are as beautiful in their colouring, as graceful in their forms. Still few, or none, are favourites.+ Some nations, it is true, have regarded certain species with a kind of religious homage; but man is evidently at enmity with them. There is something repulsive about their appearance and movements; the fixedness of their gaze; the fiery glistening of their eyes; the unalterable expression of cunning

"In the Dutch colonies of the East Indies, André Cleyer purchased, of the hunters of the country, an enormous Serpent, in the body of which he found a deer of middle age, altogether entire, with its skin and limbs. In another individual of the same species, also examined by this traveller, a wild he-goat was found with its horns; and a third, had evidently swallowed a porcupine with its quills. He also adds, that a pregnant woman became the prey of a Reptile of the same genus, in the island of Amboyna; and that this kind is sometimes kept for the purpose of attacking buffaloes, in the kingdom of Arracan, on the frontiers of Bengal. We need hardly be astonished at this, when Prince Maurice of Nassau Siegen, one of the governors of Brazil, in the seventeenth century, assures us, that he himself was an eye-witness of stags, and other bulky animals, and even of a Dutch woman, being devoured in this manner, in the region of South America, where he commanded. Father Gumilla, in his "History of the Orinoco," recounts analogous facts concerning a Serpent, which he calls Bajo; and a multitude of others of the same kind may be found in the works of travellers."-Griffith's Transl., Cuv.

+ The common Snake of England may he domesticated; and the Coral Snake of Florida, which is very beautiful and gentle, is often kept tame.

and ferocity; their winding, silent, and insidious mode of progress; the rapid, noiseless manner in which the head, towering aloft, as elevated on the look-out for prey, is instantly lowered on the approach of the victim; their subtleness; their daring; their predatory habits; the poison of many; the unconquerable strength of others; all combine to render them objects of alarm or aversion. The voice of Serpents, which is often exerted, is a hiss, more or less loud, or piercing: it is the announcement of anger, or impatience, the warning of an attack, the signal of defiance.

The duration of life in Serpents is very great; but we know of no experiments or observations, which can enable us to state the natural age to which any arrive; but it must be years before a Boa, or Python, which, when first excluded from the egg, is not more than twelve or fourteen inches in length, attains to the length of twenty-five or thirty feet.

They are extremely tenacious of life, and will survive severe wounds. Instances have been known, in which the head, severed from the body, has, after a considerable time, not only retained vitality, but bitten with fury.

Serpents pass the colder season in a state of hybernation; and numbers often collect, and intertwine themselves together, in their retreats; no doubt for the sake of the warmth, which they thus communicate to each other. They rouse from their lethargy in spring; but, strange to say, and the observation applies to many other Reptiles, their torpidity ceases, as M. Latreille observes, when the atmospheric temperature is at the same degree as when they sought their retreats. "The electric fluid, one of those great agents in the animation of living beings, in conjunction with the warmth, operates in rousing these Reptiles from their inactivity. They have more vital energy at the commencement of spring, than on the approach of winter, because they are susceptible of being, more or less, animated by the electric fluid; the