198 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 7, 



end of the rib is relatively longer than in Python, resembling in its 

 proportions that in Coluber ; and the articular concavity itself is 

 better defined. 



Of the 253 trunk-vertebrae of the Python tigris, the 74 anterior 

 ones have long hypapophyses ; the remaining 179 have mere tubercles 

 in the place of those processes. If 13 scattered vertebrae of a dis- 

 articulated skeleton of such a Serpent were picked up, it is three to 

 one but that they would be of the 179 without the hypapophyses. 



In the Coluber Histrio, the 58 anterior vertebrae have hypapo- 

 physes ; the succeeding 157 vertebrae, which support moveable ribs, 

 have no hypapophyses. In the Deirodon {Anodon) scaber, hyp- 

 apophyses are developed from 32 anterior vertebrae ; in the remain- 

 ing 58 vertebrae with moveable ribs the process subsides to a mere 

 tubercle. In the same proportion of the trunk- vertebrae of an African 

 species of Eryx, the hinder end of the hypapophysial ridge is slightly 

 produced. In Naja, as in Viperus, the hypapophysis is continued, 

 but of relatively smaller size than in Crotalus, from the posterior part 

 of the lower ridge of the vertebra throughout the trunk. The diapo- 

 physis presents the same well-marked tubercle upon its upper part as 

 in the Rattlesnake, but the lower end is less produced ; the process 

 underpropping the zygapophysis projects proportionally further be- 

 yond the articular surface. 



The probability is in favour of the fossil Serpent from Salonica 

 resembling those genera in which the hypapophysis is well developed 

 from all the trunk-vertebrae ; the breadth of the base of the neural 

 arch indicates that they have been from about the middle, not from 

 the fore-part of the trunk. The vertebrae offer so many points of 

 resemblance with those of the Rattlesnake and Viper, that they may 

 have belonged to a venomous species ; they are, however, at least, 

 specifically distinct from the vertebrae of known species of Crotalus 

 and V'ipera, and they by no means afford certain grounds for a con- 

 clusion as to the poisonous character of the Salonica Serpent. 



The known existing Serpents of Southern Europe and Asia Minor 

 include a species of Eryx {Anguis jaculus of Hasselquist), several 

 subgenera of Colubrine harmless Snakes, e. g. Ailurophis vivax, 

 Fitzinger, Ccelopeltis monspessulana, Ranz., Periops hippocrepis, 

 Wagler, Zacholus austriacus, Wagler, Zamenis Riccioli, Bonaparte, 

 Callopeltis Jlavescens and Cal. leopardinus, Fitz., Rhinechis scalaris, 

 Bonap., Elaphis quadrilineatus, Bonap., HcBmorrho'is trabalis, Boie, 

 also from four to six species of Natrix and of Coluber proper ; but 

 none of these species now present a size comparable with that of the 

 fossil Serpent from Salonica. Some individuals of the Natrix 

 viperina of Dalmatia have been said to reach the length of 6 feet. 

 The poisonous Serpents of the South of Europe and Western Asia 

 are exclusively viperine {Pelias berus, Merrem, Vipera aspis, and 

 Fip. ammodytes, Latr.), but are still smaller in comparison with the 

 fossil. 



The classical myth embalmed in the verse of Virgil, and embodied 

 in the marble of the Laocoon, would indicate a familiarity with the 

 idea at least of Serpents as large as the Laophis in the minds of the 



