Ql REPTILES. 



Finally, there are some serpents which should be placed next to the 

 vipers, only differing from them in their sub- caudal plates, some or all of 

 which are simple. They are distinguished from the Tisiphones by having 

 no pits behind the nostrils. 



Sometimes the plates on the base of the tail are entire. 



Trimeresurus, Lacep. 

 Larce plates on the head; part of their plates double, the others simple*. 



Oplocephalus, Cuv. 

 Large plates on the head ; all the sub- cau dais simple 'j-. 



Acanthopiiis, Daud. — Ophrias, Merr. 



Plates on the fore-part of the cranium and head ; tail terminated by a 

 hook ; almost all its scales simple, the extreme sub-caudal ones sometimes 

 double J. 



Echis, Merr. — Scytale, Daud. 



The head covered with small scales; all the sub-caudal plates simple §. 



Langaha, Brug. 



Head covered with plates; muzzle salient and pointed; anterior half of 

 the tail completely encircled with entire rings, and the posterior covered 

 above and beneath with small imbricated scales ||. 



In addition to these two tribes of Serpents, properly so styled, a third 

 has lately been recognized, in which the organization and armature of the 

 jaws are nearly the same as in the non-venomous serpents, but in which 

 the first maxillary tooth is larger than the others, and is perforated for the 

 transmission of the poison, as in the venomous serpents with isolated 

 fangs. 



These serpents form two genera, distinguished, like those of the two 

 neighbouring families, by the covering of the belly and the under part of 

 the tail. 



Bungarus^j, Dand. partim, — Pseudoboa, Oppel. 



The Bongares have, like the Boas, Crotalus, and Echus, subventral 

 and subcaudal plates, simple head, short, and covered with large plates ; 



* The Trimeresure a petite tete, Lacep. Am. Mus. IV, lvi, 1. 



•f The species are new. 



\ Acanthophis cerastinus, Daud. V, Ixxvii; and Merr. Beytr. II, ix, or Boa palbe- 

 brosa, Sh.; — Ac. Brownii, Leach, Zool. Miscell. I, iii, the most venomousTeptile that 

 is found in the environs of Port Jackson. 



§ Horatta pain., Russel, II, pi. 2, or Boa hora/la, Sh., or Pseudoboa carinata, Schn., 

 or Scytale bizonata, Daud. '\ , lxx; — Pseudoboa krait, Schn., or Scytale krait, Daud. 



|! The Langaha of Madagascar, Lacep. I, xxii, a serpent only known by the figure 

 of Bruguiere. 



\ Bur.garus, a barbarous term drawn from that of Bungarum-pamma, the name by 

 which the largest species is known in Bengal. 



