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plovers, sandpipers, herons, ducks and grebes, to mention only those represented by several species.
Among the Colony's snakes those most commonly en- countered are harmless. They include the common rat snake, or dhaman, the Indo-Chinese rat snake, and the chequered water snake. The small bright green bamboo snake is the commonest of the few poisonous reptiles to be found. Indian cobras and pythons exist in the Colony, but are rarely encountered. Of the various sea-snakes found, all are poisonous but inoffensive, and none of them attack swimmers.
Note: Previous editions of the Annual Report have given the number of islands in the New Territories as 75. This included only the larger ones, on which some form of human activity was possible, i.e. fish-drying, fishing from rocks etc. The present count of 198 is arrived at on the basis of including every island or rock that has grass or other vegetation on it.
The geology section of this chapter is reproduced from The Geology of Hong Kong, by S. G. Davis.
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