O F S E R P E N T S. i8i 



inks of nature. We are told that, while Regulus led his army along 

 ic banks of the river Bagrada in Africa, an enornnous ferpent difputed 

 is paffage over. We are aflTured by Pliny, who fays that he himfclf 

 Lw the fkin, that it was an hundred and twenty feet long, and that it had 

 eftroyed many of the army. At laft, however, the battering engines 

 ,'ere brought out againfl: it, and by thefe it v/as foon deftroyed. Its 

 poils were carried to Rome, and the general was decreed an ovation 

 or his fuccefs. The fkin was kept feverat years in the Capitol. 



Serpents even now are the longeft of animals, exceeding even croco- 

 liles, and yielding only to whales, &c. They are alfo the fmalleft, 

 nany being but two or three inches long, and the fize of a quill. Thofe 

 >f the large kinds are rare, and diftant from each other -, thofe of the 

 niddle fizes often are heaped on each other in fubterranean retreats. 



Serpents, in general, are evidently diftinguilhed from the reft of ani- 

 nated nature. They have the length and the fupplenefs of the eel, but no 

 ins J they have the fcaly covering and pointed tail of the lizard, but no 

 cgs; they have the crawling motion of the worm, but alfo lungs to 

 )rcathe with : upon the whole, their external fhape is the fimpleft among 

 mimals pofTefling blood. 



The colours of ferpents are extremely various and brilliant, efpecially 

 m fun-fhine ; from the moft lively white and red, to the deepeft 

 black. Some fhew one fhade only ; others exhibit m.anycolours — con- 

 trafted,. interwoven in mefhes, diflributed in lines, prolonged in ftreaks, 

 difpofed in bands, fpread in fpots, or fcattered in ftarsj fometimes in re- 

 gular forms, fometimes in irregular : an infinite dilTimilarity. 



Their head is generally protefted throughout by a bony helmet : but 

 the back of the fkull is rather (hort, by which formation the origin of the 

 fpinal marrow is expofed ; and here they are eafily and mortally vulnerable. 

 All ferpents have very wide mouths in proportion to the fize of the head, 

 and can Iwallow the head of another animal three tim.es as bio; as their own. 

 Their jaws do not open as ours, one way only, but are held together at 

 the roots by a ftretching mufcular fkin; by which they open widely, like' 

 ftretching leather, extending to admit the morfel, which the ftomach re- 

 ceives in part, while the reft remains in the gullet till diflblved ; often 

 part remains in the mouth, and fills it, their windpipe being placed fo 

 as to fuffer no injury. 



Their hearing is probably dull : the fonorous rays pafting through a 

 covering of fcales to the auditory procefies. Their fmell is alfo thought 

 to be feeble; as theirnoftrils are but fmall, and furrounded with fcales. 



H h i The 



