COLUBER. 



91 



these are crossed by irregular spots of the same 

 colour which are very numerous. The belly is dusky 

 with a tinge of blue ; and there is a spot of yellow, 

 with a three-cornered one on each side of the neck. 

 These last-mentioned spots compose the collar, from 

 which the species gets the name of torquata, or ringed. 

 The head is flattened, and the muzzle rounded ; and 

 the head has four rows of large scales, two in the first 

 row, two in the second, three in the third, and four in 

 the fourth. There are seventeen scales in each jaw : 

 the scales on the sides are very small and smooth, 

 without any keel or projection in the middle. There 

 are about 120 plates on the belly, and from fifty to 

 sixty pairs on the under part of the tail. The eggs, 

 which are about eighteen or twenty in number, are 

 deposited in dunghills, hotbeds, and other places where 

 they have the advantage of heat from the fermenta- 

 tion of vegetable or animal matter. 



This species is chiefly found in humid places, near 

 the margins of waters, and it takes readily to the 

 water, and is rather an expert swimmer. Its food 

 consists of mice, frogs, insects, and molluscous ani- 

 mals. It is a harmless and even gentle creature, and 

 capable of being tamed, in which state it shows not a 

 little attachment and affection ; and gives evidence that 

 it was intended for some useful domestic purpose , for it 

 is a law, and a very beautiful one, in the animal king- 

 dom, that every animal, of whatever race it may be, 

 and whether an inhabitant of the land or the water, 

 which courts the society of man, or even shows no 

 positive reluctance and desire to escape, is in some 

 i way or other useful to man, or might be rendered so, 

 if man would study its nature, and attend to the func- 

 tions which it is capable of performing. But the 

 harmless nature, and the gentle manners, and even the 

 'Usefulness of this animal, have not been sufficient to 

 iprotect it from a full share of that very unfounded 

 prejudice which people generally have against the 

 whole of the race. Even the Bard of Avon, who is, 

 generally speaking, as superior as a naturalist as he is 

 is a poet, has helped to perpetuate the animosity with 

 which this gentle creature is attacked. This is the 

 ;'' water" or "ten" snake, which formed one of the 

 ingredients of the "cauldron of diablerie," prepared 

 ,Dy the witches, in order to shake the soul of the 

 tern Macbeth, and torment him before his time : 



Fillet of a fenny snake. 



In the cauldron boil and bake. 



This species of serpent is delicate in its nature, and 

 ! lot found in the colder or more elevated parts of the 

 Country. In Scotland, it is very rare, and confined 

 .0 some of the warmer districts of the south ; and 

 ilthough there is a Scotch name for it, there is not a 

 3aelic one, so that it never can have been common, 

 t>r even known in the Highlands of Scotland, where 

 here is a name for the poisonous viper. But although 

 t has not been found in the eastern parts of the 

 riighlands, there is some reason to believe that it is 

 ty no means rare in Argyleshire, and in some of the 

 nore southerly of the Hebrides, where the climate is 

 nild and humid. It is also said to be rather common 

 a many parts of Ayrshire, near the coast, especially 

 bout the hills of Dundonald. But as, in Scotland 

 specially, where snakes of any kind are of rare occur- 

 ence, and in many places of which, the people will 

 ot eat eels because of their snake-like form, every one 

 hat can be discovered is instantly killed, and killed 

 ith the stigma attached to it that it is a poisonous 



viper, or adder, as it is called in that part of the 

 island. 



One specimen, differing in its characters from the 

 common species, is mentioned as having been dis- 

 covered in the south of Scotland, near Dumfries, the 

 plates on the belly of which are stated at 162, and 

 those on the tail eighty. The colours were at the 

 same time paler than those of the common snake, and 

 the dorsal scales without any mesial crest as they 

 have in that species. But the specimen was a very 

 small one, not above five inches in length, and no 

 mention is made of any other instance of its occur- 

 rence within the island ; so that it is impossible to 

 form any positive conclusion respecting it. The hisr 

 tory of British reptiles is a subject which stands in 

 need of far more extensive and more careful investi- 

 gation than it has hitherto met with ; but from the 

 peculiar haunts, the retiring habits, and the long 

 hybernations of most of these animals, the study of 

 them is attended with peculiar difficulties. 



Coluber coronella. This species is not uncommon 

 in the northern parts of France, and seems to resemble 

 the Dumfries-shire specimen rather more than the 

 Austrian snake does, with which Dr. Fleming, in his 

 account of British animals seems disposed to class it. 

 This one is represented as being of small size, and 

 with all its scales perfectly smooth ; the upper part 

 of the body bluish, with two rows of lenticular black 

 spots ; the flanks are of a pale reddish colour, clouded in 

 some places with darker ; and there are two triangular 

 spots of yellow at the back of the head, which is of 

 an oval form, and covered with very large scales for 

 the size of the animal. 



Coluber viridiflavus. The green and yellow snake 

 is a very beautiful species, very abundant in the south 

 of France, and especially in the country around Bor- 

 deaux. The size varies from two to five feet in 

 length ; its head is large, its under part is of a delicate 

 lemon yellow, and the scales on the upper part are 

 alternately intense black and very brilliant green, 

 variously marked in different specimens, but always 

 very rich and beautiful. The tail is longitudinafiy 

 marked with black and yellow. This species is very 

 expert in climbing trees, and in capturing small birds, 

 and plundering their nests ; it is a very delicate crea- 

 ture, and killed by the slightest blow on the back. 



Coluber Austriaca. Though this species was first 

 discovered ia Austria, and named after that country, 

 it is, perhaps, more abundant in the south of France, 

 in Spain, and in some parts of Italy, than it is any 

 where to the northward of the Alps. The upper 

 part has the ground colour of a reddish grey, marked 

 with five small lines behind the eyes, a bar across the 

 back of the head, and two rows of alternating spots 

 along the back, which are brown and blackish. The 

 lower part is iron grey, clouded with darker. Its 

 scales are entirely smooth, and the upper part has a 

 shining lustre. It is but a small species. 



Coluber viper'mm. This species is found in the 

 south of France, in Spain, and in Italy. It is of a 

 brownish-grey colour above, marked with a zig-zag 

 line of spots down the back, which are yellow in the 

 centre, and black at the extremities ; there is also a 

 row of very small spots along each side. The under 

 part is mottled with black and grey. 



Coluber tclragonus. This species, as its name 

 indicates, has the section of the body of a quadran- 

 gular form. It is small, rarely attaining a foot m 

 length, and is not so common as many of the other 



