FAMILY CROTALID^E. 53 



FAMILY CROTALID/E. 



With poisonous movable fangs in the upper jaw ; no other teeth in the upper jaw. A pit or 

 fossa between the eye and nostril. Terrestrial. 



Obs. In this State we have but two venomous serpents belonging to this family; and neither 

 of them, except in the unsettled districts, are numerous. 



GENUS TRIGONOCEPHALUS. Oppel. 



Head large, triangular ; covered, ivith plates in front and on the vertex to behind the orbits, 

 and beyond this with scales. A deep fosset between the eyes and nostrils. Body robust. 

 Tail with plates, simple, unarmed. ; its plates occasionally divided. 



THE COPPER-HEAD. 



TRIGONOCEPHALY'S contortrix. 



PLATE IX. FIG. 18. a. Summit of the head. — (CABINET OF THE LYCEUM. 



Boa contortrix, Lin. Syst. Nat. 12 Ed. p. 373. 



Angkislrodon mokeson. Pal. de Beauv. Am. Transact. Vol. 4, p. 381. 

 Cenchris contortrix. Daud. Hist. Reptiles, Vol. 5, p. 358, pi. 50, fig. 25. (Head.) 

 Scylale cupreus. Harl. Med. and Phys. Res. p. 120. 



Trigonocephaly contortrix. Holbrook, N. Am. Herpetoloey, Vol. 2, p. 69, pi. 14, Ed. prima ; Vol. 3, p. 39, pi. 8, Ed. 

 secunda. 



Characteristics. Copper-colored. Reddish brown blotches over the back, dilated on the sides. 

 Series of irregular rounded black blotches on each side of the abdominal 

 plates. Length two to three feet. 



Description. Body robust and thick, and covered with oblong hexagonal cannate scales ; 

 those on the flanks larger and smooth. The posterior part of the head covered with smooth 

 oval scales, which become carinate on the neck. Head large and very distinct from the neck, 

 (in the plate, the head is represented disproportionately small,) and flattened above. Rostral 

 plate emarginate beneath ; the two pair of frontal plates four-sided, the posterior pair largest ; 

 supra-orbital plate oblong, obscurely triangular, prominent over the eyes ; vertical plate sub- 

 pentagonal, with an acute process directed backwards, and separating the occipital pair. 

 Rostral plate large, triangular. The fosset or pit lies between the second labial and one of 

 the anterior orbitals. Mouth very large, with long yellowish white venomous fangs in the 

 upper jaw. Abdomen wide and fiat. Tail short, one-eighth of the total length, tapering 

 rather suddenly, and ending in a solid horny tip : the caudal plates irregularly bifid ; and 

 this division occurs either at the commencement, middle, or more rarely near the end of the 

 tail. Ventral plate wide, subquadrate. 



