ELAPSFULVIUS. 89 



batata) is cultivated; the labourers frequently dig them up when harvesting the 

 potatoes in autumn. The individuals I have seen have been of very mild character, 

 and could not be induced to bite under any provocation whatever. Indeed, 

 although possessed of poisonous fangs, they are universally regarded as innocent 

 snakes, and are constantly handled with impunity, never to my knowledge having 

 injured any one. It is worthy of remark that this animal, which is the true 

 representative of the dreaded Elaps lemniscatus of South America, should be so 

 gentle and harmless, although possessed of the same instruments of destruction. 



Geographical Distribution. The range of the Elaps fulvius may, for the 

 present, be said to begin in North Carolina and southern Virginia, whence it 

 extends through Georgia, Florida and Alabama, to the south-western and western 

 states, where it seems to be widely distributed. I have received specimens from 

 the Red river; and Audubon, in his magnificent work on Ornithology, has given 

 a good drawing of one taken in Louisiana; and Professor Green, of Philadelphia, 

 has one brought by Lewis and Clark from the Upper Missouri. 



General Remarks. The Elaps fulvius was first described in the twelfth edition 

 of the Systema Naturas of Linnaeus, from a specimen sent him by Dr. Garden, 

 under the name Coluber fulvius, which it has ever since borne. He erred, however, 

 greatly in the description of its colours, Avhich he says are black and yellow rings. 

 This arose from his having observed the colours of a specimen that had been 

 preserved in alcohol; yet in this he has been universally followed by naturahsts. 



It is a matter of great doubt which of our reptiles Catesby's beadsnake was 

 meant to represent. It must, I think, be either the Coluber coccineus of Linnasus, 

 or the Elaps fulvius; the disposition of the spots on the back agrees best with the 

 former; yet the colours, red, black and yellow, belong to the latter animal, which 

 he probably had in view, though not disposed in rings. This, however. Mould be 

 no evidence that it is not the same snake, as Catesby is notoriously incorrect in 

 his colouring; so much so, that few of his snakes could be recognised by the colour 

 alone he assigns them; for there is quite as great a resemblance in colour, in my 

 Vol. II.— 12 



