260 CLASS REPTILIA. 



Dryinus, Merr. (Passerita, Gray'y, 



Have the body as long and narrow as the preceding ; 

 but at the end of their muzzle is a small slender 

 and pointed appendage. 



* 



Dryophis, Fitzinger, 



Have still the elongated form of a thread or cord. 

 Their muzzle is pointed, but without any appendage, 

 and their scales equal.t 



We may further distinguish 



Oligdonon, Boi6, 



Small adders, with obtuse head, short and narrow, 

 which are destitute of palatine teeth.t 



Filiformis, Oppel.) I join to them the Sieons, Fitz., at least in the Col. 

 Catenulatus, Russ. pi. xv. The dorsal scales are rhombridal, and larger, 

 as in Col. Ahoetulla. 



* Coluber Nalusus, Russ. Sup. pi. xii. and xiii. 



t Coluber Fulgidus, Daud. VI. Ixxx. Seba, II. liii. Diyinus Veneus, 

 Spix, III. 



J By these I particularly mean the Tyria, Mal/polon, Psammophis, Co- 

 ronella, Xenodon, and Pseudoelaps of Fitzinger ; at the most we can only 

 adopt his Dueeria, in which the head is short, obtuse, and of a piece with 

 the body, as in elaps, and his Homalopsis, in which the eyes are more 

 vertical than in the other adders. Mark, that I have withdrawn the 

 Cerberi from them. Laurenti had already attempted to divide the adders 

 into Coluber and CoroneUa ; these last were those which have the scales 

 on the sides of the temporal plates, sufficiently large to be themselves 

 reckoned as additional plates, but the passages from one group to another 

 are almost insensible. 



