ELAPS FULVIUS. 



51 



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 northern repre- 

 sentative 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 

 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 that was brought by Lewis and Clark from the Upper Missouri. 



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

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

 under the specific name fulvius, which it has ever since borne. Linnaeus erred, 

 however, greatly in his description of the colours of the animal, which he says are 

 black and yellow rings. This arose, doubtless, from his having observed the 

 colours of a specimen that had been preserved in alcohol; yet his description 

 has been universally copied by naturalists. 



It is a matter of much doubt which of our reptiles Catesby's Bead-snake was 

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

 bach, or the Elaps fulvius; the disposition of the spots on the back agrees best Avitli 

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

 which he probably had in view, though they are not disposed in rings. This, 

 however, would 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 much 



