348 EMBROIDERED BOA. 



the head is covered in front with large scales : 

 the tail is extremely short, and tapers pretty sud- 

 denly. 



EMBROIDERED BOA. 



Boa Phrygia. B. alba t dorso subgmco, corpore mgro elegant is- 



sime limbato. 

 White Boa, with a greyish cast on the back ; the body most 



elegantly marked with black lace-like variegations. 

 Serpens Phy fiats Orientalis Gerendc dictus. Seb. 1. t. 62. f. 2. 



AMONG the whole Serpent tribe it may be 

 doubted whether there exists a species more truly 

 elegant than the present. Its general size seems 

 to be nearly that of the Boa can in a, but its length 

 is rather greater in proportion : the ground-colour 

 of the whole animal is white, with a very slight 

 cast of yellowish-brown on the back, while along 

 the whole upper part is disposed a continued series 

 of black variegations, so conducted as to bear a 

 striking resemblance to an embroidery in needle- 

 work : the head is of the same form with that of 

 the Boa canina, and marked by three narrow black 

 streaks, which, running along the top of the head 

 and the cheeks, as shewn in the figure, join with 

 the embroidered pattern of the back: the lower 

 surface is entirely white : it seems singular that so 

 remarkable a species should not have been at- 

 tended to by Linnaeus. It is, according to Seba, 

 a native of the East Indies : he adds, that it is 

 called by the title of Gcreitf/c, and that in some 



