PSAMMOPHIS FLAGELLIFORMIS. 15 
Foreign naturalists have all been deceived in supposing the application of 
the term of Coach-whip Snake to be much more extended than it really is. 
Thus Schiegel says that it is applied, without distinction, to several long and 
slender snakes, which is certainly not the case, for no term is more restricted 
among our common names of serpents, not even the Black Snake, and has 
been in common and universal use since the time of Catesby. It is not called 
Coach-whip Snake from the extreme tenuity of its body, but from the form of the 
tail, and the manner in which the scales upon it are arranged; these are very 
large, rhomboidal, slightly imbricated, so as to appear only juxta-posed, which 
give it precisely the appearance of a whip-cord, and from this is the common 
name derived. 
We have other serpents equally attenuated as the Black Snake, but that is 
called a Racer, or the Leptophis wstivus, and that is called Green Snake. 
It seems, then, that the Coluber flagelliformis has not been described, or even 
referred to properly, by any systematic writer on natural history, except Shaw; 
and even his name must yield in priority to that of Catesby. 
