270 CLASS REPTILIA. 



from them, in consequence of their poisonous fangs ; 

 and some serpents are naturally united with them, 

 which have the under part of the tail simple, either 

 in the whole, or in part. 



They are all distinguished from the crotali and 

 trigonocephali, because they have no fossets behind 

 the nostrils. 



Some have on the head only imbricated and 

 carinated scales, like those of the back.* 



Such is 



The Short Tailed J^iper. {Vi-p. Brachyura, Nob.) 

 Seb. II. XXX. 1. 



One of the most terrible from its poison.f 



Others have the head covered with small granu- 

 lated scales. 

 Such is 



The Common Viper. (Col. Berus. L.) 

 Brown j a double range of transverse spots on the 



* This division and the following form together the subgenus JEchidna 

 of Merrem, which, with his EcMs, of which we shall speak farther on, 

 compose his genus Vipera. Fitzinger portions out our first three divisions 

 into three genera, which he names Vipera, Cobra, and Aspis. 



■j- Add, the Aspic of Lacep. II. ii. 1. {Vip. Ocellata, Latreille), a large 

 foreign species neighbouring to Atropos, Lin. Mus. ad. fred. XIII., but 

 very different from the Aspis of Linnaeus, which is onljr a variety of the 

 common species ; Vip. Coltro, Seb. II. xciii. 1 ; Vij>. Lacliesis, id. xciv. 2 ; 

 La Dabore, Lacep. II. xiii., or La Brazklienne, id. iv. 1. ; La Vipere Ele- 

 gante, Daud. Russel, vii., &c. 



