OPHIDIA. 63 



Dendrophis, Fitz. — Ahcetulla, Gray. 



The scales of the spinal range larger, as in Dipsas, and those 

 along the flanks narrower j but their head is not broader than the 

 body, which is very long and slender: the muzzle obtuse.(l) 



Dryinus, Merr. — Passerita, Gray. 



The body as long and slender as in the preceding subdivision; but 

 there is a little slender and pointed appendage to the end of the 



muzzle.(2) 



Dryophis, Fitz. 



The same elongated form, the muzzle pointed, but no appendagej 

 scales equal. (3) 



Oligodon, Boie. 



Small Colubers, with a short, narrow, obtuse head, in which the 

 palatine teeth are wanting. 



The various remaining subgenera which have been separated 

 from that of Coluber, appear to us less worth retaining^ they are 

 founded upon slight variations in the proportions of the head, thick- 

 ness of the trunk, See. (4) After all these divisions, the Colubers are 

 more numerous in species than any other genus of Serpents. Seve- 

 ral are found in France, such as 



Col. natrix, L.; Coulevre d collier, Lac. II, vi, 2. (The Ringed 

 Snake.) Cinereous, with black spots along the flanks, and 

 three white ones on the neck, forming a collarj scales cari- 

 nate, that is ridged. Very common in meadows and stagnant 



Fipera atrax, Mas. Ad. Fred. XXII, 2, with which Linnaeus, Laurentini and Dau- 

 din have confounded it. 



(1) Col. ahsetulla; — Col. decorus, Shaw; — Col. caracaras. Id-, [Bungarxis filifor- 

 mis, Oppel. ) to which I add the Sibox, Fitz.; at least in the Col. catenulatus, 

 Russ. pi. XV, the dorsal scales are rhomboidal and larger, as in the ahsetulla. 



(2) Col. nasutus, Russ. Serp. pi. xli and xiii. 



(3) Col. fulgidus, Daud., VI, ixxx, Seb., II, liii, 9; — Dryinus seneus, Spix, III. 



(4) By this I particularl}' mean the TrniA, Maipolon, Psammophis, Couoxella, 

 Xenodon andPsEUDOELAPS of Fitzinger. At most, we could only adopt his Dubeh- 

 KiA, where the head is short, obtuse, and on one uniform line with the body as in 

 Elaps; and his Homalopsis, in which the eyes are rather more vertical than in the 

 other Colubers. I have separated Cerberus. Laurentini had previously endea- 

 voured to divide the Colubers into Coluber and Coboneha; the latter were 

 those in which the scales on the sides of the temporal plates are large enough to 

 be counted as so many plates more; but the transitions from one gro^ip to another 

 are almost insensible. 



