[Senatb 



€^NFS HETEEOBON, Pal. de Bea^^v. 



Qen, Char. Body skort^ stout :: tail shart. Head, neck, and bodycapaWe 

 of excessive dilatation. Posterior palatine teetk longer.. Head broadp 

 short.. Outline of mouth very convex,, on a single curve,. Orbit enclosed 

 by a continuous chain of small plates ; the ckcle completed above by 

 the superciliaries. Bostral prominent : its anteriOT fiice VCTy broad, and 

 twmed up ; its ridge above sharp.. Behind it a median plate, either iu 

 eoBtaet with the froaitafe or separa«ted by small plates.. Frontals ia two* 

 pairs : nasals two i loral one or two. Dorsal rows of scales 23 - 27^, 

 earinated. Abdominal scutellse 125 - 150 i posteriou bi&d. Subcaudal 

 scutellae all bifida 



dolors light, with dorsal and lateral darker blotches ; or else brown, with 

 dorsal transverse l^ht bars :: sometimes entirely black> 



Stn. Heterodon,. Pal. de Eeauv^. in Late. Hist. Nat. des Kept.. IV,. 

 1799. 



8.. Heterobon plattrmikos,, Lati'.- — Blowing Viper.. 



Spec. Char.. Occipitals- and: verticals longer than broad, about equal in length. 

 Centre of eye anterior. Dorsal rows 25, all earinated j. tlie omter sometimea. 

 smooth. Keels of the scales extending to their tips. Scales on the back quite 

 linear anteriorly; posteriorly they are much broader. Color yellowish gray or 

 brown,, with about 2S dark dorsal blotches from head to anus, and 15 half-rings. 

 on the taiL One or two lateral rows.. Beneath yellowish., A dark band across the- 

 forehead in front of the vertical, continued through the eye to the angle of the- 

 mouth.. 129+1, 5a, 25, 28, 6 (Penn.).. 



SYNONYMS., 



Coluber heterodm, Daxj&. Eist.. Nat. Kept. VII.. 1799, 153, pL.lx.. f; 28.— Sat^ 

 Amer. Journ.. of Sc. I.. 1818, 261. — -Haul.. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. V. 

 1827, 357;. and Med. & Phys. Ees. 1835, 120. 



I^eterodon platyrhinos, Late. Hist,, Nat. Kept. IV. 1799, 32, f . 1 - 3. — Holbe. 

 N. Amer. Herp. II. 1828, 97, pLxxi..; and 2d ed. IV. 1842, 67,, pl.xvii.— 

 Dekay, N.Y. Fauna, III, 1842, 51, pl.xiii.f.28.— B. & G. 1. c (1853), 51. 



This curiously formed snake, known as Hognose,, Blowing Viper,. Spreading; 

 smd Checkered Adder, etc.,, although supposed to be venomous,, is perfectlj 



