TRIGONOCEPHALUSPISCIVORUS. 65 



The labial plates of the upper jaw are dirty white. The neck, body and tail of 

 the animal is dark brown, lightened towards the sides to a dingy greenish-yellow. 

 The abdomen is leadish-grey, approaching to black towards the tail. 



Dimensions. Length of head, 1 J inches; breadth of head, 1 inch; length of body, 

 19 inches; length of tail, 3^ inches; circumference of neck, 2 inches; circumference 

 of body, 5 inches. In the specimen described there were 130 abdominal plates, 

 and 29 plates under the tail, the first bifid; these were succeeded by 4 bifid plates 

 or scales; and there were again two entire plates, succeeded by 8 scales. 



Habits. It is found about damp, swampy places, or in water — far from which 

 it is never observed. In summer, numbers of these serpents are seen resting on 

 the Ioav branches of such trees as overhang the water, into which they plunge on 

 the slightest alarm. Catesby thinks they select these places to watch for their 

 prey. They merely choose them in order to bask in the sun; for in those situations 

 deprived of trees, as the ditches of rice fields, their lurking places are often on 

 dry banks. They are the terror of the negroes that labour about rice plantations, 

 where it is more dreaded than the rattle-snake, which only bites when irritated 

 or in self-defence, or to secure its prey; the water moccasin, on the contrary, 

 attacks every thing that comes within its reach, erecting its head and opening its 

 mouth for some seconds before it strikes. 



I have placed in a cage with the water moccasin, several of the harmless snakes, 

 as the Coluber guttatus, Coluber getulus, &c, at a time; they all evinced the 

 greatest distress, hanging to the sides of the cage and endeavouring by every 

 means to escape from their enemy, who attacked them all in turn. Two animals 

 of its own species were then thrown into the cage; it seemed instantly aware of the 

 character of its new visiters, and became perfectly quiet. Indeed I have often 

 received four or five of these animals in safety, after their having peaceably 

 travelled together a journey of fifty miles in the same box. The dread of the 

 fatal water moccasin has brought into suspicion several other snakes that live 

 Vol. II.— 9 



