449 



FRENCH SNAKE. 



Coluber Atrovircns. C. atroiirens, Jtaxo maculatu.s, abdamine 

 Jlavo latcribus ?iigro punctato. 



Black-green Snake, speckled with yellow ; the abdomen yel- 

 low, with a row of black specks down each side. 



Anguis .fEsculapii niger. Aldrov. Serp.p.%71. Jonst. Rept. t. V. 



La Coleuvre verte & jaune. Cepede Serp. p. 137. pi. 6-f> 1. 



Abdominal scuta 206, subcaudal scales 107. 



THIS seems to be the species figured in Aldro- 

 vandus under the name of Anguis JEsculapii ni- 

 ger, and which appears to have been so little at- 

 tended to by modern naturalists as to have been 

 generally confounded with the preceding, till it 

 was again brought to notice by Mons. Dauben- 

 ton, and afterwards by the Count de Cepede, who 

 has accurately described it, and who informs us 

 that it is very frequent in some of the Provinces 

 of France, being found in woods and moist shady 

 places : in its general size and appearance it re- 

 sembles the Ringed Snake or Natrix, but differs, 

 in colour, being of an extremely dark or blackish 

 green, so as to appear black on a cursory view, 

 the sides being marked by numerous rays of yel- 

 low specks, of different forms, some oblong, and 

 some square, and which form somewhat more de- 

 cided or distinctly marked stripes towards the tail 

 than towards the head : the eyes and edges of the 

 mouth are bordered with yellow scales : the abdo- 

 men is also yellow, each scutum being marked on. 

 each side by a black speck. Tins snake is an 

 animal of a perfectly harmless nature, and, like 



