262 Say on ierpetology. 
haw. Sometimes the dots are wanting on the neck and near 
the cloaca; and in one aged individual, the intermediate line oc- 
curred double, and confluent on the throat. 
Coluber fulvius, this species is said by Daudin to be closely 
allied to his C. coccineus, notwithstanding the difference in plates 
and scales. But it is certainly very distinct by other charac- 
ters, and strikingly so in its perfectly annular black and red 
bands; the latter are margined with yellowish and spotted with 
black. A specimen has 224 plates and 32 scales, total length 
21 inches, length of the tail 1,2; inch. The coccineus has the 
underpart of the body whitish, immaculate. The fulvius seems 
to belong to the genus vipera; it has the fangs, but not the 
orifice behind the nostril, which communicates with the reser 
voir of venom, so conspicuous in the erotali, &c. 
s ventralis. The tail of thissnake not only breaks in 
pieces when. struck with a weapon, but portions of it are thrown 
off at the will of the serpent. This singular fact I witness 
ed in Georgia. This is one of the many which are. called 
horn-snakes. A tip of the tail of one of them was once brought 
ae as having been taken from a recently ‘withered tree, 
_bearer assured me was destroyed by the insertion 
of this. Toraidable instrument, and it was not without consid: 
erable difficulty he was convinced of the innocence of the 
tail, and of having been the dupe of aknave. There seems 
to bea peculiar character in the mode of imbrication of the 
scales of this species, each one of these at the lateral edges, 
passes beneath the lateral scale on one side, and over the , 
edge of the opposite one. It has been “neta under five” 
different generic names, and four different specific on 
The Crotali do not gain a single joint only to os rattle iad 
nually, as is generally supposed. They gain more asad 
each year, the exact number being probably regulated = 
great measure by the quantity of nourishment the animal has 
received. Rattle-snakes in Peale’s Museum have bee? ob- 
served to produce 3 or 4 ina year, and to lose as many from 
the extremity during the same time. Hence it is obvi0U% that 
the growth of these curious appendages is irregular, and and that 
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