52 ELAPS FULVIUS. 



resemblance in colour, in my opinion, between his Bead-snake and the Elaps 

 fulvius as there is between his Water Viper and the hving Trigonocephalus 

 piscivorus, or his small Rattlesnake and the Crotalophorus miliarias. Yet Dr. 

 Garden's criticism* on his works, in a letter to Linnaeus, is too severe: "It is 

 sufficiently evident that his sole object was to make showy figures of the pro- 

 ductions of nature, rather than to give correct and accurate representations. 

 This is rather to invent than to describe; it is indulging the fancies of his own 

 brain, instead of contemplating and observing the beautiful works of God." 



Catesby did much for natural history, though his drawings were done in the 

 infancy of art, as applied to this subject, and those of his reptiles and fishes are 

 the very worst part of his work. 



It may furthermore be said, that this animal has been from time immemorial 

 called in Carolina the Bead-snake, as the Coluber guttatus has been known under 

 the name of the Corn-snake. 



* Smith's Correspondence of Linnaeus, &c., vol. i. p. 300. 



