OPHIDIA. 71 



Elaps, Schn., partim.(l) 



Vipers with a head furnished with plates, very diflferently organ- 

 ized from the Naise. They are not only deprived of the power of 

 dilating their ribs, they cannot even dilate their jaws, on account of 

 the shortness of the tympanal, and particularly of the mastoid bones, 

 the result of which is, that their head, like that of the Tortrices and 

 Amphisb^nae, is of one uniform piece with the body. The most 

 common species, is 



CoL lemniscatus^L.', Seb, I, x, ult. and II, Ixxvi, 3. A white 

 ground marked with triple black rings; tip of the muzzle black. 

 It inhabits Guiana where it is greatly dreaded, and where it 

 causes an equal degree of fear to be extended to the Tortrix 

 scytale, and the Coluber Msmlapii, although they are harmless, 

 from their resemblance to it in form, size, and colours. There 

 are several species of Elaps in the two continents with a nearly 

 similar distribution of colours. (2) 



MicRURUS, Wagl. 

 Elaps with a very short tail. 



Platurus, Lat. 



The head enveloped with plates, and double ones under the tailj 

 the latter, however, is compressed in the form of an oar, which 

 renders them aquatic. (3) 



Finally, there are some serpents which should be placed next to 

 the Vipers, only differing from them in their sub-caudal plates, some 

 or all of which are simple. They are distinguished from the Tisi- 

 phones by having no pits behind the nostrils. 



Sometimes the plates on the base of the tail are entire. 



(1) Schneider comprized among his Elaps all the serpents he supposed to be 

 deficient in a separated mastoid bone, but of this he judged from external appear- 

 ances, or the small degree of enlargement in the occiput; this character, there- 

 fore, is only true in the Tortrices of Oppel or Ilysia. He paid no attention either 

 to their scales or their venom. E/k*4> Exo4> are the Greek names of a non-veno- 

 mous serpent. 



(2) Such are E. anguiformis, Schn.; the Vip. Psyche, Daud. VIII, c. 1; Col. 

 lacteus, Lin. Mus. Ad. Fr. XVII, 1, and better Seb. II, xxxv, 2; El. nob. surina- 

 mensis, Seb. II, vi, 2, and Ixxxvi, 1; Col latonius, Merr., I, 2, and Seb. II, xxxiv, 

 4, and xliii, 3, the same as the Col. lubricus;Col. flavins, &c. 



Add, C. fulvus, Gmel., of America. .4m. Ed. 



(3) Le Plature d bandes {Col. laticaudatus, L, or Hydrus colubrinus, Sh.), Daud. 

 VII, Ixxxv. 



