The agility of this serpent in seizing its nimble-footed prey is truly wonderful. One day Sir Emerson Tennent had an opportunity of surprising a coryphodon which had just seized on a rat, and of covering it suddenly with a glass shade, before it had time to swallow its prey. The serpent, which appeared stunned with its own capture, allowed the rat to escape from its jaws, which cowered at one side of the glass in an agony of terror. On removing the shade, the rat, recovering its spirits, instantly bounded towards the nearest fence, but quick as lightning it was followed by its pursuer, which seized it before it could gain the hedge, through which the snake glided with its victim in its jaws. The beautiful coral-snake (_Elaps corallinus_) is fondled by the Brazilian ladies, but the domestication of the dreaded cobras as protectors in the place of dogs, mentioned by Major Skinner, on undoubtedly good authority,[26] is still more remarkable. They glide about the house, going in and out at pleasure, a terror to thieves, but never attempting to harm the inmates. The Tree-snakes offer many beautiful examples of the adaptation of colour to the animal’s pursuits, which we have already had occasion to admire in our brief review of the tropical insect world. They are frequently of an agreeable green or bluish hue, so as hardly to be distinguishable from the foliage among which they seek their prey, or where they themselves are liable to be seized upon by their enemies. They are often able vertically to ascend the smoothest trunks and branches, in search of squirrels and lizards, or to rifle the nests of birds. The Water-snakes which infest some parts of the tropical seas, though far from equalling in size the vast proportions of the fabulous sea-serpent, are very formidable from their venomous bite. They have the back part of the body and tail very much compressed and raised vertically, so as to serve them as a paddle with which they rapidly cleave the waters. [Illustration: TOAD AND ANOLIS.] CHAPTER XXIV. LIZARDS, FROGS AND TOADS. Their Multitude within the Tropics--The Geckoes--Anatomy of their Feet--The Anolis--Their Love of Fight--The Chameleon--Its wonderful Changes of Colour--Its Habits--Peculiarities of its Organisation--The Iguana--The Teju--The Water-Lizards--Lizard Worship on the Coast of Africa--The Flying Dragon--The Basilisk-- Frogs and Toads--The Pipa--The Bahia Toad--The Giant Toad--The Musical Toad--Brazilian and Surinam Tree-Frogs.