ORDER OPHIDIA. S57 



head has plates on the end of the muzzle, and there 

 are fossets to thek lips. 



There are some species as large as any boa. Such 

 is the Ular-sawa, or Great Adder of the Simda 

 Islands, (Colub. JavanicuSy Sh.) which attains to 

 more than thirty feet in length. Seba, I. Ixii. II. 

 xix. 1, xxviii. 1, xcix. 2.* 



Some of these pythons have the first, others the 

 last plates of their tail simple. Perhaps it may be 

 sometimes but an accidental variety. f 



Cerberus, Cuv. 



Have like the pythons almost the entire head covered 

 with small scales, and plates only between and in 

 front of the eyes. But they have no crooks at the 

 anus. They have also sometimes simple plates at 

 the basis of the tail.t 



* This Ular sawa, ov Pi/{hon A y)tetht/ste, D'dud.; Boa Antethystina, Sch., 

 of which we have a large skeleton and some skins brought from Java by 

 M. Leschenault, approximates at least very closely to the Pedda-poda 

 of Bengal {Python Togre, Daud.), Russel, xxii. xxiii. xxiv. Col. JBocEformis, 

 Sh., Boa Castanea et Albicans, Schn., and it appears to us that, in gene- 

 ral, all the pretended boas of the old continent are pythons. Ular-sawa 

 signifies, in Malay, serpent of the river. 



The Boa Reticulata, Ordinata, Rhombeata, Schn., belong to the pythons. 



•)- The Bora, Russ. xxxix. {Boa Orbiculata, Sh.) 



\ We have seen these simple plates in one individual, while others of 

 the same species had them all double ; a sufficient proof of the small im- 

 portance of this character. To this group belong the Col. Ccrber ■$, Daud. 

 Russ., pi. xvii; Homolopsis Obtusattis, Reinw., and some neighbouring 

 species. 



VOL. IX. S 



