The Hottentots hunt it in order to obtain its venom; they pound its head between stones, and mix the pulp with the juice of certain plants for the purpose of poisoning their arrows. It lives for a fairly long time in captivity. At the Pasteur Institute at Lille I have succeeded in keeping one of these snakes for two years, feeding it by forcing milk and eggs down its throat. (2) _B. peringueyi._--Nostrils opening upwards and outwards. Head covered with small, strongly keeled scales, which are smallest on the vertex; 11 scales round the eye; 3 series of scales between the eye and the lip; 11-14 supralabials. Scales on the body in 25-27 rows, strongly keeled; 130-132 ventrals; 19-28 subcaudals. Colour greyish-olive, with 3 longitudinal series of grey or blackish spots; head sometimes with a trident-shaped dark mark, followed by a cross; under surface whitish, with small dark spots. Total length, 325 millimetres; tail 26. _Habitat_: Angola and Damaraland. (3) _B. atropos._--Nostrils opening upwards and outwards, 13-16 scales round the eye; 2-5 series of scales between the supranasals; 10-12 supralabials; 3-4 infralabials. Scales on the body in 29-31 rows, all strongly keeled; 124-145 ventrals; 18-29 subcaudals. Colour brown or grey-brown, with 4 longitudinal series of dark spots, edged with black and white; two large black marks on the head; belly grey or brown, with darker spots. Total length, 350 millimetres; tail 25. _Habitat_: Cape of Good Hope. (4) _B. inornata._--Eyes smaller than in _B. atropos_, and separated from the lips by 4 series of scales; supraorbital region raised, but without erect horn-like scales; 15-17 scales across the head; 13-14 supralabials; 3 lower labials. Scales on the body in 27-29 rows, all keeled; 126-140 ventrals; 19-26 subcaudals. Total length, 350 millimetres; tail 30. _Habitat_: Cape of Good Hope. (5) _B. cornuta_ (fig. 38).--Nostrils opening upwards and outwards. Head covered with small, imbricate, strongly keeled scales; 2-5 raised scales, like horns, above each eye; 12-14 scales round the eye; 12-15 supralabials; 2-3 infralabials. Scales on the body keeled, in 25-29 rows; 120-152 ventrals; 18-36 subcaudals. Colour grey or reddish-brown, with black spots, edged with white and arranged in 3 or 4 longitudinal series; a dark, oblique streak from the eye to the mouth; belly yellow or brown, uniform or spotted. Total length, 510 millimetres; tail 35. [Illustration: FIG. 38.--_Bitis cornuta._ (After Duméril and Bibron.)] _Habitat_: Cape Colony, Namaqualand, Damaraland. (6) _B. caudalis._--Nostrils opening upwards and outwards. 12-16 scales from one eye to the other across the head; above each eye a single, erect, horn-like scale; 10-16 scales round the eye; 10-13 supralabials; 2-3 infralabials. Scales on the body in 22-29 rows, strongly keeled; 112-153 ventrals; 18-33 subcaudals.