66 TRIGONOCEPHALUSPISCIVORUS. 



like it in the water, as the Coluber fasciatus, Coluber erythrogaster, &c., which are 

 not only harmless, but really useful in destroying vermin. 



The food of the water moccasin is such fish as it can overtake, and few exceed 

 its velocity in swimming; and whatever smaller reptiles, as frogs, toads, tadpoles, 

 &c., fall in its way become its prey. 



Geographical Distribution. The northern limit of the Trigonocephalus pis- 

 civorus must, for the present, be set down as the Pedee river in North Carolina; as 

 to its southern and western, nothing positive can be said, only that its range is 

 extensive; I have had it from the Floridas, Alabama, and from the banks of the 

 Mississippi, and have no doubt that it may be found for a certain distance up the 

 tributaries of this great river. 



General Remarks. This animal was certainly first made known to naturalists 

 by Catesby, who calls it the water viper, and adds, that it is commonly called in 

 Carolina, "the water-rattle; not that it hath a rattle, but because many are as 

 large, and coloured not unlike the rattlesnake, and their bite is considered as 

 fatal." Lacepede placed it among the crotali, but improperly, as it is without 

 rattles, which are the distinctive characters of that genus; their place is supplied 

 in this by a small horny point, about half an inch in length. This excrescence, 

 though perfectly harmless, has, as Catesby says, "been considered of di'eadful 

 efficacy by the credulous vulgar, not only to kill men and other animals, but even 

 to destroy plants and trees." 



This is doubtless the Trigonocephalus tisiphone of Cuvier, as he first refers to 

 Plate xhii. of Catesby, which is certainly the Trigonocephalus piscivorus, or water 

 viper. Why he should also have referred to Plate xliv. is inconceivable, as that 

 is the black viper, an animal entirely distinct; and the same may be said of the 

 name tisiphone, for which he refers to Shaw, whose Coluber tisiphone is neither 

 the xliii. nor the xliv., but the xlv. plate of Catesby, which is the brown viper, and 

 perhaps only a dark Coluber fasciatus before it has shed its skin. 



