C. leopardinus is smaller, but is one of the handsomest snakes of Southern Italy, South-Eastern Europe, and Asia Minor. It is closely allied to the previously described species. The ground-colour is pale brown with a dorsal series of dark brown or reddish, black-edged, transverse spots, and a lateral alternating series of smaller black spots, or with two dark brown, black-edged stripes bordering a yellowish vertebral stripe; usually with a forked black mark on the occiput and nape. The under parts are white, checkered with black, sometimes with the latter colour prevailing.
C. flavescens s. aesculapii is the Aesculap-Snake, for which the almost unknown name of longissimus has now been unearthed in deference to the fetish of priority. This snake is of an extremely graceful and slender build, with a very long tail. Its home is the South of France, Italy, and South-Eastern Europe. It occurs sporadically in the Tyrol, for instance near Bozen, in Austria, at Baden near Vienna, in Germany only in the Taunus, especially at Schlangenbad, which has received its name from the frequent occurrence of this snake. This sporadic distribution favours the idea that these snakes were introduced by the Romans as inmates of the temples erected to Aesculapius at such watering-places. Specific characters are the smooth and shiny scales, which are arranged in twenty-one to twenty-three rows, the distinctly angulate ventrals and the double anal and sub-caudals; the fourth and fifth of the upper labials border the eye, which has a round pupil. The coloration is very variable, as a rule olive-brown above with a dark streak behind the eye; the upper lips and a triangular patch on the temples are yellow; the under parts are uniform pale yellow. Some specimens are pale golden brown; others are very dark, almost black; while some have four darker stripes along the body, and lastly whitish specks occur on the upper surface. Large Aesculap snakes grow to a length of 5 feet. Their food consists chiefly of mice. They become very tame, although many of them at first bite furiously. Their climbing capacities are astonishing, the snakes being able to scale high and vertical walls provided there is the slightest "foothold." Some of my specimens escaped in the room and were at last found near the ceiling, resting on the rods of the curtains, up the folds of which they had managed to wriggle. Boulenger kept one for many years in a glass cage, where the snake entwined himself round the branches of a stick and allowed us to take him with the stick out of its socket and to inspect him. Being kept in an inhabited room, the snake did not exactly hibernate, creeping into the moss at the bottom of the cage; but it refused to feed, and remained in a rather drowsy condition coiled up on its favourite stand. During the pairing season they frequently resort to the water, at Schlangenbad at least; the few eggs are deposited under dry moss or in dry, decayed wood, and are hatched in about six weeks.
C. (Rhinechis) scalaris has the smooth scales disposed in twenty-seven rows. The snout is strongly projecting, and has a V-shaped dark mark on the top; a black streak runs through the eye, and another black spot lies below the eye. Young specimens are pale brown with a series of dark H-shaped marks on the back, suggesting a ladder, hence the specific name. In the adult these marks are replaced by a pair of brown stripes running along the back; the under parts are always uniform yellow. Total length about 3 feet. This snake is restricted to the Iberian Peninsula and to the South of France. Most specimens are very ill-tempered. The young live upon locusts and small lizards, the old eat mice and small birds. In captivity they also take dead animals–a rare habit with snakes.
Dendrophis with about ten species inhabits South-Eastern Asia and Australia. They are typical Tree-Snakes. The scales are keeled, and form only thirteen or fifteen rows; those of the vertebral row are enlarged; the ventrals have a pair of suture-like lateral keels and a notch on each side, arrangements which are of great assistance in climbing, these snakes being able to slide up the branches of trees in almost straight lines instead of having to twist and undulate their way up.
Fig. 163.–Dendrophis punctulatus. × ½.
D. punctulatus, of Northern and Eastern Australia, is olive-brown above, uniform or with black edges and yellow outer borders to the scales. The upper lips, the throat and anterior ventrals, are yellowish. Total length up to 6 feet.
Leptophis is a Neotropical genus of Tree-Snakes. The body and the extremely long, whip-like tail are very slender. The head is very distinct from the neck; the eye is large, with a round pupil. The scales form thirteen or fifteen rows; the ventrals are sometimes angulate laterally; the sub-caudals are double. L. (Ahaetulla) liocerus is a beautiful snake, green above with a golden lustre, while the under parts are yellow or white. The total length of this species amounts to 6 feet, the tail then being nearly 2 feet long. These graceful Tree-Snakes live upon small reptiles and birds and their eggs. When shaken out of a tree or frightened off they let themselves fall down from considerable heights, coiling body and tail like a watch-spring, and alighting on the ground upon the spiral, which breaks the fall.
Fig. 164.–Leptophis liocerus. × ½.