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Updated: May 10, 2025
Tree-snakes turn the Kru-boys not pale but the colour of boiled liver; their 'bowels fail them, as the natives say. Each tree has its ant, big or small, black or red; and all sting more or less. We see their armies marching up the trunks, and the brush of a bough brings down a little shower.
These were a favourite resort of the tree-snakes, and in the early morning the numbers which clung to them were sometimes quite remarkable.
A general exodus of the other inhabitants from his line of march began; the moccasins slid into the water with a low splash, while the boa-constrictors and the tree-snakes moved off along the ground when they felt it tremble, and a number of night birds retreated into the denser woods with loud cries at being so rudely disturbed.
During the dry season of the year, the breadth of the very tortuous Bicol, at its mouth, is a little over sixty feet, and increases but very gradually. There is considerable variety of vegetation upon its banks, and in animal life it is highly attractive. They sit motionless on the trees on the bank, only their thin heads and necks, like those of tree-snakes, overtopping the leaves.
Whenever I return to Europe, you may be sure that in my hot-house those harmless, lovely creatures shall not be missing." Ceylon has several species of Tree-snakes, and one of the most common is the green Passerita, easily recognized from its bright colour and from the pointed moveable appendage, into which the snout is prolonged.
In Ceylon I have never seen any specimen of a larger size than three feet; whilst they are known to attain to more than five on the Indian Continent. The inference is obvious, that the green coloration of the majority of tree-snakes has more or less connection with their habits and mode of life.
There are also many tree-snakes, as thick as a man's arm. In the forest, mountain-lions are rare, but "tigers" are common. We found Santa Maria to be an extensive hacienda, and the sugar-mill was a large structure, well supplied with modern machinery, and turning out a large amount of product.
There are nevertheless tree-snakes which have a very different coloration; and one of the most remarkable species is the Passerita fusca or Dryinus fuscus, of which a figure is annexed. It closely resembles the green Passerita in form, so that naturalists have considered it to be a mere variety.
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