SERPENTS. 59 



neatli the tail, with the exception of the very extremity, which is merely 

 furnished ahove and beneath with small imbricated scales, and terminates 

 in a little spur*. Of this number is the 



C'r ot. mutus, 1j.; Col. alecto,'Sh.; Seb. II, Ixxvi, 1; Lachesis 

 rhombeafa, Pr. Max. No. V. Yellowish; the back marked with 

 large black or brown lozenges ; scales raised in the middle. It is 

 found six and seven feet long, and is quite as formidable as the 

 Rattlesnakes. 



ViPERA, Daud. 



The Vipers, most of which were confounded with the Colubers by Lin- 

 naeus, on account of their having also the double sub-caudal plates, require 

 to be separated from them from the circumstance of their having poisonous 

 fangs. There are also some serpents which naturally belong to this divi- 

 sion, whose sub-caudal plates are either wholly or partially simple. They 

 are all distinguished from the Rattlesnakes and the Trigonocephali by the 

 absence of the pits behind the nostrils. 



In some the head is only furnished with imbricated and carinated scales 

 like those on the backf. Such is 



Vip. hrachyura, C\xv.; Seb. II, xxx, 1. (The Minute Viper). 

 The intensity and activity of its poison render it one of the most 

 terrible of the genus J. 



In the Adders the head is covered with small granulated scales, as for 

 instance. 



Col. bents, L. (The Common Viper). Brown ; a double row of 

 transverse spots on the back ; a range of black or blackish spots on 

 each flank. Sometimes the dorsal spots coalesce in transverse bands, 

 and at others they all form one zig-zag longitudinal band, in which 

 state it is the Colub. aspis, L.§, which is sometimes called Aspic in 

 the neighbourhood of Paris. Individuals are found perfectly black 1|. 



Ftp. iUyrica, Aldrov. 1(59; Col. ammodytes; La Vipere a museau 

 cornu, Jacquin. Collect. IV, pi. xxiv and xxv. Very nearly similar 



* It is the genus Lachesis, Daud., adopted by Fitzinger, but badly characterized ; 

 the sub- caudal plates are certainly double, almost to the very end, where there is 

 nothing but very small scales. Pr. Max. gives a con-ect view of it. 



t This, with the following division, forms the subgenus Echidna of Merrem, 

 which, with his Edits, of which we shall speak hereafter, composes his genus 

 ViPERA. Fitzinger arranges our three first divisions in three genera, which he 

 names Vipera, Cobra, and Aspis. 



X Add the Jspic, Lacep. II, ii, I, (Vip. ocellaia. Lath.), a large species allied to 

 the atropos, Lin. Mus. Ad. Fred. XIII; but very different from the aspis of Lin- 

 naeus, which is a mere variety of the common species; — Vip. Clolho, Seb. IF, xciii, 1; 

 — lip. lachesis, Id. XCIV, 2; — the Daboie, Lacep, II, xiii, 2, or the brasilienne, Id. 

 IV, 1;— the Vip. elegante, Daud. Russel, VII, &c. 



§ Aspis, a Serpent of Egypt, of which there were several species. One of them, 

 from the dilatabiiity of its neck, must have been the Huje. 



II Btrus is the name of a serpent only used by the authors of the middle century, 

 such as Albert, Vincent de Beauvais, &c., and then for an aquatic species, probably 

 the Col. natrix. The Vipi>re de Churns, of which Laurenti endeavoured to make a 

 species, and which is the Col. aspis, Gmel., is the same as this common Viper, which, 

 in my opinion, is the true beriis of Linna?us, who on this point only cites Aldrov, 

 115, which is this species. 



