Defer. 
24 SON TAS KIT We Clafs Til. 
Ie ete: “\S?UNG TAld Kei 
Evudpis. Arift. Hift. an.V.c. 1. culis diftinétus. Pet. Muy. 
Natrix torquata.  Gefner. Ser- xv. No. 101. 
pent. 63. Coluber natrix. Liz. f/f. 380. 
Natrix torquata. Raii fyxz. ‘Tomt-Orm, Snok, Ring-Orm, 
quad. 334. Faun. fuec. No. 288. - 
Anguis vulgaris fufcus collo C. natrix fcutis abdom, 170. 
flavefcente, ventre albis ma- Squamis caudz, 60. Ibid. 
HE fnake is the largeft of the Englih fer- 
pents, fometimes exceeding four feet in leneth: 
the neck is flender; the middle of the body thickeft ; 
the back and fides covered with {mall fcales, the 
belly with oblong, narrow, tranfverfe plates. The 
firft Linnaeus diftinguifhes by the name of /quame, 
the laft he calls fcusa, and from them jonas his ge- 
nera of ferpents. 
Thofe that have both /guame.and sks he calls 
Colubri ; thofe that have only /guame, Angues.. The. 
viper and {nake are comprehended in the frft genus, 
the blind-worm under the fecond; but we chufe (to 
avoid multiplying our genera) to take in the few 
ferpents we have by a fingle genus, their marks being 
too evident to be confounded. 
The color of the back and fides of the fnake are 
dufky or brown; the middle of the back marked 
with two rows of fmall black fpots running from 
head to tail; and from them are multitudes of lines 
of fpots crofling the fides; the plates on the belly 
are dufky, the fcales on the fides of a bluifh white. 
On each fide the neck is a fpot of pale yellow, 
and the bafe of each is a triangular black {pot, one 
angle of which points towards the tail. 
j The 
