DTPSAS. 491 



fluent, especially to some distance clown the neck : 

 head rather large than small, and covered with 

 large scales : tail of moderate length, and gra- 

 dually tapering. Native of America. Appears 

 to vary greatly in the number of abdominal and 

 subcaudal scales. 



DIPSAS. 



Coluber Dipsas. C. c&ruleus, subtus albidus, squamis margine 



albidis. 

 Blue. Snake, whitish beneath, with the scales whitish on the 



edges. 



Coluber Dipsas. Lin. Syst. Nat. p. 3S6. 

 -Abdominal scuta 152, subcaudal scales 135. 



A RATHER small species : length about a foot 

 and half or two feet : colour bright blue, paler 

 beneath: scales, according to Linnaeus, edged with 

 white, and the tail, which is slender and sharp- 

 pointed, marked beneath by a blueish suture : 

 the head rather large, somewhat angulated, ovate- 

 oblong, and obtuse : colour sometimes blueish 

 green : native of Surinam, and said to be a poi- 

 sonous species. This snake, being avowedly a 

 native of America, is not very happily named by 

 Linnaeus ; the Dipsas of the ancients being an 

 African Serpent. 



