The Snakes of Europe

Snakes, _Ophidia_--regarded by some authorities as an order of the class _Reptilia_, by the author as a sub-order of the order _Squamata_, which includes besides the Lizards, _L...

The form varies enormously, worm-like in some, comparatively short and heavy, elongate and more or less slender, or extremely gracile and almost filiform, in others. In this res...

In dealing with the coloration, we have first to distinguish between the colour and the markings. The former is very often highly variable among snakes of the same species, to s...

The typical Ophidian skull is characterized by a solidly ossified brain-case, with the distinct frontals and the united parietals extending downwards to the basisphenoid, which...

In the most generalized snakes--those which show the nearest approach to lizards--teeth are present not only on the rami of both jaws, but also on the premaxillary bone, on the...

The gland which secretes the poison is a modification of the parotid salivary gland of other Vertebrates, and is usually situated on each side of the head below and behind the e...

The brain is small and of very oblong shape. It consists of smooth cerebral hemispheres, small optic lobes, a still smaller cerebellum, and long olfactory lobes; the pineal body...

In most snakes there is a very marked asymmetry of the viscera and their blood-supply, the organs of the right side being anterior to, as well as larger than, those of the left.

The genital glands are situated anterior to the kidneys, the right extending farther forward and often larger than the left. The testes are elongate. The vas deferens is closely...

Snakes may be grouped, according to their mode of life, in five principal categories, gradually merging into each other, or two of them not infrequently found combined in one an...

Like all other animals, snakes are infested with a multitude of vegetable and animal parasites, both external and internal. About 300 species of Ophidian parasites have been rec...

Representatives of the order Ophidia are found over the whole world, with the exception of Iceland, Ireland, and New Zealand, between the Northern limit of 67° in Europe (_Viper...

Under this head, the question of poisonous snakes naturally occupies the first place. In addition to what has been said above in Chapter VI., dealing with the anatomical and phy...