I)i'. Bancroft on some ^^nimals of Jamaica, 85 



I come now to another class of animals, for which I hope that I may 

 invoke the aid of Mr. Bell : I mean, that of Reptiles. Dr. Brown has 

 mentioned only three kinds of Snake here, but there are more in the 

 island than he knew of. I have been endeavouring to obtain some of each 

 kind, and I now send three sorts, all I have yet succeeded in getting. 

 They are as follow : — 



13. Two specimens of Brown's Coluber, No, 2. He has spoken of 

 it as " very slender," but this is wrong ; it is the tail only that is so, and 

 it is remarkably long, as compared with its body. Brown's description 

 being imperfect, a new one is much wanted, and if it come from Mr. 

 Bell, and if a figure may accompany it (and the other Snakes I now 

 send), drawn with the accuracy, elegance, and mastery of hand that 

 mark the figure of Dryinus auratus, in the 2d Vol. of the Zoological 

 Journal, I shall be most happy in having sent the specimens where such 

 justice shall be done to them. I send in a small paper, here inclosed, 

 some of its scales ; near the apex of each of the dorsal ones will be ob- 

 served a faint minute dot, a peculiarity I do not recollect to have seen 

 noticed by any naturalist as to the scales of Ophidia. 



14. Two specimens also of our Whip-snake, which, I presume, will 

 come under Mr. Bell's sub-genus Leptophis. I cannot but think that it 

 is yet undescribed, and there is another peculiarity in its dorsal scales, 

 that they are likewise dotted near their apices ; but bi-punctated. Some 

 of the loose scales are in a paper in the box. As both Dryinus and 

 Leptophis have been separated from the Colubres, there seems wanting 

 some explanation concerning the caudal scutella, which in the figure just 

 mentioned of Dryinus auratus, are drawn as single, instead of double, 

 as usual among the Colubres. My Whip-snake has its scutella double. 

 The specimens come from St. Mary's Parish. 



15. A specimen of a Snake caught in the woods not long ago, and 

 accounted to be very rare here, and very poisonous also ; but this is an 

 error, as I have examined its mouth, and besides the usual structure as 

 to the palatine and maxillary ranges of innocuous teeth, I have extracted 

 three of those which, were it poisonous, would be fangs, and they are 

 imperforate. These teeth are inclosed in a paper within the box. This 

 Snake seems to fell under Daudin and Cuvier's sub-genus Eryx. 



16. A specimen of Anolius, not uncommon about Kingston. It is 



