Of the more characteristic Tree Snakes, the _Dendrophidæ_ have the body and tail much compressed, or very slender and elongated; the head generally lengthened, narrow, flat, and distinct from the slender neck; the snout rather long, obtuse or rounded in front; cleft of the mouth wide; and the eye of moderate size, or large, with round pupil. These are Diurnal Snakes, which live entirely upon trees, where they prey chiefly on arboreal lizards and frogs. Species of them inhabit all tropical countries. They are mostly of great beauty, and the Indian _Chrysopelea ornata_ is excessively so, being variegated with yellow and crimson upon a black ground; but the crimson soon fading when a specimen is immersed in spirit. Others are very variable in their colouring, as the African _Bucephalus capensis_ and the Indian _Dendrophis picta_. The next family of _Dryiophidæ_, or the Whip Snakes, have a still more slender and elongated body, which has been aptly compared to the thong of a whip. The head is very narrow and long, with tapering snout, ending in a protruded rostral shield, which is sometimes modified into a flexible appendage; eyes of moderate size, and all the Asiatic species have the pupil of the eye horizontally linear, and a long fang-like tooth in the middle of the maxillary. The whole of this group are provided with a posterior grooved tooth. They are chiefly nocturnal, and their movements are wonderfully rapid and graceful among the branches of trees. They are numerous almost everywhere in tropical countries. In general the various Whip Snakes are of a bright leaf-green colour, with two white stripes on the belly, so that they are difficult to discern among the foliage. In the genus _Langaha_, which is peculiar to Madagascar, the muzzle is elongated into a fleshy appendage, which is covered with small scales, constituting about one-third of the total length of the head. This appendage is dentated in one species (_L. crista-galli_), and not so in another (_L. nasuta_). In the Indian genus _Passerita_ the snout is long and pointed, terminating in a flexible appendage. The name of Whip Snake is applied by Anglo-Indians to all of the species of _Dendrophidæ_ and of _Dryiophidæ_, and the erroneous notion prevails that they are highly Venemous, and that they spurt venom into people's eyes. The same is believed in South Africa of the _Bucephalus capensis_. Even Gordon Cumming asserts that one night a Snake which his servant had tried to kill with his loading-rod flew up at his eye, and "spat poison into it. Immediately," he adds, "I washed it well at the fountain. I endured great pain all night, but next day my eye was all right."[12]