Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/217

Rh in general bold and fierce, rearing up themselves, and with sparkling eyes advancing resolutely to the combat, instead of retreating from the foe, sometimes springing with great agility on an intruder to inflict the fatal stroke. The Najas or Hooded Snakes of Africa and India, Dr. Smith describes as always ready for fight, advancing, when their haunts are invaded, upon the intruder with the head and forepart of the body almost perpendicular, the neck expanded, and an expression sufficiently indicative of the malignant purpose they have in view: nor does the retreat of their enemy always put a stop to their advance. An officer of the Cape Corps, worthy of implicit credence, assured Dr. Smith that he had been chased twice round a waggon by an enraged Naja, and was delivered only by a Hottentot, who disabled the savage reptile by a blow with a long stick. Some species, as the Horned Vipers (Cerastes), will neither remove to avoid danger, however imminent, nor give any indication of their presence, until actually trodden on by the unwary foot, when the sudden injection of the deadly poison tells the intruder of his fate. Others, as the Rattlesnakes (Crotalus), on the approach of danger, give warning by agitating a series of horny cells, loosely articulated within each other, with which the extremity of the tail is furnished, and thus often permit the avoidance of their deadly stroke.

Besides the important distinction of this Family of Serpents, which is derived from the form and structure of their poison-fangs, they are for the most part marked by the large size and great