BLACK VIPEE. 687 



as to the effect of the bite of this Heterodon. Dr. Yarrow of Washington, 

 D. C, called attention to it, and also since stated the fact that he had 

 a fine specimen brought to him the past summer, which the slayer 

 called the " Mountain' Moccasin," and declared it to be the most venomous 

 of all snakes. A similar belief prevails among the Indians and com- 

 mon people generally. On the other hand, Messrs. H. S. Reynolds, 

 Urbana, Illinois, C. C. Abbott, Trenton, New Jersey, andR. M. W. Gibbs, 

 Kalamazoo, Michigan, state that they had each been bitten by 

 Heterodon platyrhmus, and had known it to bite animals without serious 

 results. Mr. H. E. Heighway, Cincinnati, Ohio, states that, while 

 on a scientific expedition last summer, Prof. A. S. Wetherby and six 

 students from Cincinnati University, found under old logs a " Puffing 

 Adder " of the genns Heterodon. The Professor picked it up fearlessly, and 

 while preparing to put it into a bottle of alcohol, was bitten upon the 

 thumb, but no attention was paid to the bite, and no harm resulted. On 

 the other hand, it may be stated, that the Heterodon has at the posterior 

 end of the maxillary bone two or four teeth, much larger than the 

 others, and resembling fangs in appearance. They are still farther 

 enveloped in a sheath similar to that in the venomous serpents, and 

 separated by a short interval from the ordinary teeth, These teeth are 

 firmly soldered to the bone, and not loosely set in grooves as the ordinary 

 ones. That the animal could use them for the purpose of striking seemed 

 to me impossible, until Prof. Steere informed me of their peculiar power 

 of apparently dislocating their jaw, which may enable them to do so. 

 The question therefore must be settled by observations made upon the 

 actual bite of the animal. These thus far seem to point to its harmless 

 character, and yet it is hardly safe from them to infer positively that 

 the general opinion is wrong, and that naturalists are right. My own 

 impression is that Heterodon is harmless, and yet its general appear- 

 ance, and more especially the shape of its head strikingly resembles that 

 of the venomous reptiles. 



Heterodon playrhinus Latreille. 

 var. NIGER Catesby. 



Black Viper. 



Vipera nigra, Catesby. 



Coluber caeodemon, Shaw. 



Scytale niger, Daudin, Harlan. 



Coluber thraso, Harlan. 



Heterodon niger, Troost, Holbrook, Kirtland, Baird and Girard, Dumbril and 



^IBRON, GUNTHER, 



