BUCEPHALUS CAPEXSIS. 



dark coloured bar. The upper aud lateral parts of the tail olive-brown, with 

 a purplish tint. In some individuals the last half, or even the last two-thirds 

 of the body, is also of the last mentioned colour, and the parts of the back 

 only towards the head are of the greenish black hue. 



Form. — The figure and arrangement of the scales are the same as in adult 

 specimens. The head is broader in proportion to the neck than in a full- 

 grown specimen, and the eye is very large. The following are the measure- 

 ments, &c, of three young specimens : — 



The colours of the Female scarcely differ from those of the male. 



It is only within the last few months, during which I have been from time to time occupied 

 in attentively examining all the specimens I collected in South Africa, of what is commonly 

 called the Boom-slange, that I have been able to satisfy myself of the accuracy of M. 

 Schlegel's conclusion, namely, that the four reptiles I had described as so many species, were 

 only varieties of one species. At the time I penned the descriptions which were published 

 in the Zoological Journal of London, in 1829, I had seen but comparatively few individuals 

 of each sort, and not an instance of one partly coloured after one fashion, and partly after 

 another. I have, now, however, examined several individuals so circumstanced ; and from having 

 found the anterior parts coloured, as in the variety A, and the hinder parts as in the 

 variety B, or vice versa, I am consequently compelled to consider this snake as one which 

 varies extremely in regard of its colouring; and, therefore, to cancel the remark I have 

 made in reference to the group, in my observations upon Bucephalus viridis (Meptilia, 

 Plate III.), which, it may be remarked, will require now to be viewed simply as a variety 

 of B. Capensis. The figures now published will give an accurate idea of four of the most 

 distinct varieties, and the only ones which we have met with, which do not exhibit more or less 

 of the colouring of two, or even of three, of the different varieties. 



The same reasons which induced us in 1829 to consider the Boom-slange as a fitting 

 type for a distinct group, still incline us to hold it as such ; and we must see better 

 grounds than those advanced by M. Schlegel, before we consider it can be classed with 

 propriety in Dendrophis, The peculiar form and arrangement of the scales of this snake 

 afford characters by which it is to be readily distinguished from the species of that genus ; 

 and the singular character of the rudimentary fangs which exist at the hinder extremity of 

 the maxillary rows of teeth, also concur to justify its removal. As this snake, in our opinion, 

 is not provided with a poisonous fluid to instil into wounds which these fangs may inflict, they 

 must consequently be intended for a purpose different to those which exist in poisonous 

 reptiles. Their use seems to be to offer obstacles to the retrogression of living animals, such as 

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