60 



REPTILES. 



to the common species, but particularly distinguished from it by a 

 small soft horn covered with scales that projects from the end of its 

 muzzle. It is found in Dalmatia, Hungary, &c. 



Col. cerastes, L. ; Le Cerasie, Lacep. II, 1, 2. Remarkable for 

 a small pointed horn on each eye-brow; it is greyish, and hides itself 

 in the sand, in Egypt, Lybia, &c. It is often mentioned in the 

 writings of the antients. 



Vip. lophophris, Nob.; Vipere a panache, Voy. de Patterson, 

 pi. XV. A little bundle of short horny threads on each eye-brow in- 

 stead of the horn. From the environs of the Cape. 



Other Vipers, similar in general to the preceding ones, have three plates, 

 somewhat larger than those which surround them, on the middle of the top 

 of the head*. 



Col. chersea, L. ; Col. bei'iis, Laurent, and Daud. Very similar 

 to the common Viper, and distinguished from it by the aforesaid three 

 plates. It is a rarer and smaller species, and said to be more ve- 

 nomous f. 



Some individuals are almost entirely black, called Black Vipers — 

 Cohb.prester, Laurent, pi. iv, f. 1 ];. 



Next come those Vipers in which the head is furnished with plates al- 

 most like that of the Colubers. 



Of this n'imber some are so exactly similar to the most common Vipers, 

 that there is nothing but these plates to distinguish them§. Such is, 



Col. hcemachates, L. ; Seb. II, Iviii, 1, 3.^ A Cape Serpent. 

 Reddish-brown, marbled with white; muzzle obliquely truncated 

 beneath. 



The Naias 



Are Vipers with the head furnished with plates, and the anterior ribs sus- 

 ceptible of being raised up and drawn forwards, so as to dilate that part of 

 the trunk into a disk more or less broad. The most celebrated species is 

 the 



Col. naia, L. ; Naia tripudians, Merr. ; Serpent a lunettes, or 

 Cobra capello of the Portuguese in India; Seb. II, 85, 1, 89, 1 — 4, 

 &c. ; Lacep. II, iii, 1, (The Cobra de Cabello, or Spectacled Viper), 

 so called from a black line resembling the figure of a pair of specta- 



* This subdivision has furnished Merrcm with his genus Pelias. 



f It is the JEfip'nig of the Swedes {cBspuig, corruption of aspic), undoubtedly figured 

 in the Stockhol. Mem. 1749, pi. vi. Laiirenti, however, Spec. Medic, p. 97, and pi. ii, 

 f. 1 , has applied it to the name of berus. It is also the Pelias berus, Merr. ; Fi/t. berus, 

 Fitzinger. 



X Presther, the Greek name of a serpent, considered by several authors as identical 

 with the dlpsas, from Prethein, to burn. 



§ Merrem lias formed his genus Sepedon from this subdivision. Add, Cul. V. 

 niisnim, Scheuchz. Phys. Sacr. IV, DCCXVIi 



"N. B. The Opliis, Spix, Serp XVII, nmst be a venomous serpent, similar to these 

 Sepedons, but one whose poison fangs are preceded by some small simple teeth. Not 

 having seen his species, I fear it is one of those ("olubers with large posterior maxil- 

 lary teeth before mentioned, several of which are at least liable to the suspicion of be- 

 ing poisonous. 



