58 REPTILES. 



gular blackish transverse bands. That of Guiana, Crot. dwrissus*, 

 Lacep. II, xiii, 2, (The Banded Rattlesnake), has lozenge shaped 

 spots edged with black, and four black lines along the top of the 

 neck ; both species are equally to be dreaded, as death speedily fol- 

 lows a wound from their fangs. They are sometimes found six feet 

 in length (a). 



The head of some species is furnished with large plates j. 

 We should approximate to the Rattlesnakes the 



Trigonocephalus, Oppel. — Bothrops, Spix. — Cophias, Merr. 



Which, however, are distinguished from them by the want of a rattle, but 

 having the same pits behind the nostrils, and being at least equally as 

 venomous. 



The sub-caudal plates in some of them are simple, as in the Rattle- 

 snake, their head being covered with plates to behind the eyes; their tail 

 terminates in a small horny spur J. Such is the 



Colub. tisiphotie, Shaw; Catesb. II, xliii and xliv. (The Brown 

 Viper of Carolina). Brown, clouded with spots of deeper brown. 



In others the sub-caudal scales are double, and the head is covered 

 with scales similar to those on the back§. Such among others is 



Trig, lanceolatus, Opp.||; Serpent jaune des Antilles, Lacep. II, 

 v, 1. (The Lance-headed Viper). The most dangerous reptile of 

 the French Sugar islands ; it is yellowish or greyish, more or less 

 varied with brownish, and attains the length of six and seven feet; 

 it lives among the sugar-canes, where it feeds on rats, and occasions 

 the death of many of the negroes**. 



The head of some of these Trigonocephali with double sub-caudal scales 

 is furnished with plates -j-j\ 



Others, along with the small scales on the head, have double plates be- 



* These names of durissus and horridus have been variously applied to these two 

 species. 



f It is this subdivision which furnished M. Gray with his genus Crotalophorus, 

 and M. Fitzinger with that of Caudisona. The Crot. miliaris, L., Catesb. 1 1, xlii, 

 belongs to it. 



X They are the Tisiphone of Fitzinger. 



§ In the work of M. Fitzinger, this division is called Craspedocephalus; all 

 the Bothrops, Spix, pi. xix — xxiii, belong to it. 



|| This species inhabits Brazil, and most probably other parts of South America; 

 I am even inclined to think it is the Aouroitcou of Spix, pi. xxiii, which he considers 

 the Crt.t. mutus or lachesis. 



** Here comes the Trimeresure vert, Lacep. An. Mus. IV, lvi, 2, or Boodropam, 

 Russel, Serp. Corom. IX, which sometimes has two or three entire plates under the 

 root of the tail; this, however, is but an individual accident. Add, Cophias bilineatus, 

 Pr. Max. No. V; — C. atrox; — C.jacaraca. 



j f Fitzinger appropriates the name of Trigonocephalus to this subdivision. 



|jg|r (a) These two Rattlesnakes are common to the United States. There is a 

 third, the H. miliaris, in that country, though the most dangerous, it can make no 



noise with the cornets, which are furnished equally as in the other Snakes. 



Enc. Ed. 



