OPHIDIA. 69 



In olhers the head is covered with small granulated scales, as for 

 instance, 



Col. benis, L. (The Common Viper.) Brown; a double row 

 of transverse spots on the back; a range of black or blackish 

 spots on each flank. Sometimes the dorsal spots coalesce in 

 transverse bands, and at others they all form one zig-zag longi- 

 tudinal band, in which state it is the Colub. aspis, L.,(l) which 

 is sometimes called Aspic in the neighbourhood of Paris. In- 

 dividuals are found perfectly black. (2) 



Vip. illyrica, Aldrov. 169; Col. aramodytes; Vipere a museau 

 cornu; Jacquin., Collect. IV, pi. xxiv and xxv. Similar to the 

 common species, but particularly distinguished from it by a 

 small soft horn covered with scales that projects from the end 

 of its muzzle. It is found in Dalmatia, Hungary, See. 



Col. cerastes, L.; Le Ceraste, Lacep. II, 1, 2. Remarkable for 

 a small pointed horn on each eye-broWj it is greyish, and hides 

 itself in the sand, in Egypt, Lybia, &c. It is often mentioned 

 in the writings of the ancients. 



Vip. lophophris, Cuv.; Vipere ^ panache, Voy. de Patterson, 

 pi. XV. A little bundle of short horny threads on each eye- 

 brow instead of the horn. From the environs of the Cape. 

 Other Vipers, similar in general to the preceding ones, have three 

 plates somewhat larger than those which surround them on the 

 middle of the top of the head.(3) 



Col. chersea, L.; Col. benis, Laurent, and Daud. Very simi- 

 lar to the common Viper, and distinguished from it by the 

 aforesaid three plates. It is a rarer and smaller species, and 

 said to be more venomous.(4) 



Some individuals are almost entirely black, called Black Vi- 

 pers Colub. prester, Laurent, pi. iv, f. 1.(5) 



(1) .Rspis, a Serpent of Egypt, of which there were several species. One of 

 them, from the dilatability of its neck, must have been the Haje. 



(2) Berus is the name of a serpent only used by the authors of the middle cen- 

 tury, such as Albert, Vincent de Beauvais, &c. and then for an aquatic species, 

 probably the Col. natrix. The Vipere de Charas, of which Laurent! endeavoured 

 to make a species, and which is the Col. aspis, Gmel , is the same as this common 

 Viper, which, in my opinion, is the true berus of Linnaeus, who on this point only 

 cites Aldrov. 115, which is this species. 



(3) This subdivision has furnished Meri-em with his genus Pelias. 



(4) It is the JEsping of the Swedes (sesping, corruption of aspic) undoubtedly 

 figured in the Stockhol. Mem. 1749, pi. vi. Laurenti, however, Spec. Medic, 

 p. 97 and pi. ii, f. 1, has applied it to the name of berus. It is also the Pelias 

 berus, Merr.; Vip. berus, Fitzingcr. 



(5) Prester, frfma-Bn^, the Greek name of a Serpent, considered by several au- 

 thors as identical with the dipsas, from Tfn^tiv, to burn. 



