[22r]

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yellowish or marbled with black. In the Tragops dispar of the same country, the male is bright green, and the female bronze-coloured.48*(44) No doubt the colours of many kinds of some snakes serve as a protection, as the green tints of tree-snakes and the various mottled shades of the species which live in sandy places; but it is doubtful whether the colours, of many other kinds, for instance of the common English snake and viper, serve to conceal them; and this is still more doubtful with some of the very elegantly coloured foreign species. the many foreign species which are coloured with extreme elegance.

During the breeding-season their anal scent-glands of snakes are in active function;49*(44A) The males, though appearing so sluggish seem to be amorous; for many have