CHAPTER XXIII

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SNAKES.

First Impressions of a Tropical Forest--Exaggerated Fears-- Comparative rareness of Venomous Snakes--Their Habits and External Characters--Anecdote of the Prince of Neu Wied--The Bite of the Trigonocephalus--Antidotes--Fangs of the Venomous Snakes described--The Bush-Master--The Echidna Ocellata-- The Rattlesnakes--Extirpated by Hogs--The Cobra de Capello-- Indian Snake-Charmers--Maritime Excursions of the Cobra--The Egyptian Haje--The Cerastes--Boas and Pythons--The Jiboya-- The Anaconda--Enemies of the Serpents--The Secretary--The Adjutant--The Mungoos--A Serpent swallowed by another--The Locomotion of Serpents--Anatomy of their Jaws--Serpents feeding in the Zoological Gardens--Domestication of the Rat-Snake-- Water-Snakes 292

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