326 



CLASS REPTILIA. 



Many other serpents, as well as this, are partial to ants. 

 In France, the coluber austriaca is sometimes found in the 

 ant-hills, where it goes for the purpose of feeding on these 

 insects, and, not improbably, to conceal itself during the win- 

 ter season. 



This amphisboena has from two hundred and twenty to 

 two hundred and thirty and odd rings around the body, and 

 from sixteen to eighteen around the tail. Its length is about 

 a foot and a half, of which the tail scarcely forms the twelfth 

 part. The colour is an uniform white. 



All the amphisboenae which are varied with brown and 

 white, are known under the name of fuliginosa ; but there is 

 so great a difference in the distribution of colours in different 

 individuals, that it is not at all improbable that several species 

 may have been thus confounded. Laurenti has endeavoured 

 to distinguish them, and has established four ; but as he had 

 no better authority than the figures of Seba, his determina- 

 tions, are not to be depended on. 



One of these amphisboense, observed by the baron, had two 

 hundred and twenty-two rings on the body, and eight and 

 twenty on the tail. The head was whitish, with some brown 

 points. The body was brown, with irregular white spots 

 underneath. Its length about a foot and a half. 



All the amphisboense whose origin is distinctly known 

 come from America. No one but Seba attributes any of 

 them to Ceylon, an application in which he was, doubtless, 

 as erroneous as he was in many others. The taste for ants 

 has been attributed to fuliginosa as well as alba ; in the sto- 

 mach of the one we have just mentioned, nothing was found 

 but blattse and crabs. 



Shaw has figured in the " Naturalist's Miscellany" a rose- 

 coloured amphisboena, which would seem to constitute a dis- 

 tinct species ; but his description is rather incomplete, and 

 does not afford a very determinate idea of the animal. 



