COPHIAS LANCEOLATUS. 95 



from six to eight feet in length. It inhabits Martinico, St. Lucia, 

 Dominica, and some other West India Islands. According to La 

 Cepede it is also found at Cayenne, in South America, and, next to 

 the Rattle-snake, may justly be regarded as the most dangerous of the 

 trans-atlantic serpents. A specimen of this snake preserved in the 

 British Museum, from which the accompanying figure was made, 

 measured something more than five feet ; the tail measures eight 

 inches, and gradually tapers to the extremity. The body is of a 

 pale brown colour, and marked throughout the whole length of the 

 animal by pretty numerous irregular bars or variegations of a rich 

 brown or ferruginous tint, with irregular patches of the same colour 

 and of dull yellow along the sides, and still more obscure markings on 

 the part nearest the scuta ; the abdomen is dirty yellow, sometimes 

 clouded and speckled on the sides with pale brown ; the head is 

 large, flat, cordate or subtriangular, and covered with small carinated 

 scales ; but the terminal scales of the nose and those at the sides of 

 the mouth are very large ; above each eye also is a very large scale ; 

 the nostrils are small, and between them and the eyes on each 

 side is a large orifice the use of which has not been hitherto clearly 

 ascertained. The scales on the upper part of the body are mode- 

 rately large, ovate, and carinated ; the back somewhat convex, the 

 sides rather sloping, and the abdomen flattish. The fangs are very 

 large, measuring near three quarters of an inch in length, and 

 curved. The poison, as in all the species of the family, is a clear 

 yellowish fluid, resembling olive oil. The number of abdominal 

 scuta in the specimen described by La Cepede was 228, and that 

 of the subcaudal squamse 61 pair ; in the British Museum specimen 

 the number of the former is 224, and of the latter 68. 



The name of Fer-de-lance was given to this serpent by the 

 Count La Cepede, from a fancied resemblance between the shape 

 of the flat sub -triangular space on the middle of the head and that 

 of a spear-head or halbert. 



The fertility of this noxious reptile is very remarkable : the 

 female goes six months with young, and brings forth from forty to 

 sixty young ones at a birth. At the moment of their birth the 

 young ones are completely formed, of various colours, some being 



