162 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



dark and reddish brown colours, in magnitude and disposition resembling those of the 

 rattlesnake. This serpent was a perfect monster, of whose existence I should strongly 

 doubt, did I not think the veracity of the gentleman from whom I have this information, 

 and by whom it was actually killed, unquestionable." 



The frontispiece of Bancroft's book contains a print of this serpent, and under it is 

 inscribed, 



" This snake was found near Lake Champlain, in the year 1761, by Lieutenant Moses 

 Park." 



This account is thus confirmed by the concurrent testimony of Carver: 



" The two-headed snake. The only snake of this kind that was ever seen in America 

 was found about the year 1762, near Lake Champlain, by Mr. Park, a gentleman of New 

 England, and made a present to Lord Amherst. It was about a foot long, and in shape 

 like the common snake, but it was furnished with two heads exactly similar, which united 

 at the neck." 



As this account relates to the natural history of this state, and the author is respectable, 

 I have thought it sufficiently interesting to insert it with this interrogatory: Is there a 

 bay on Lake Champlain which bears the name of Donble-Headed Snake Bay ? 



Since writing the above I have seen a specimen of the false amphisbsena in Scudder's 

 Museum. It was presented to the proprietor of that establishment by Dr. Mitchill, to 

 whom it was given by Dr. Ross, who procured it in Jamaica. It is about eight inches 

 long, and each extremity has the appearance of a head. 



I have also seen in Dr. Mitchill's possession a real amphisbsena, or coluber biceps, 

 having two heads at one end of the body, diverging from the same vertebral column. It 

 ia between four and five inches long, and the colour is a light brown. It was presented to 

 the doctor by John G. Bogert, Esq. of this city, who procured it from Captain Henry G. 

 Hose, who brought this and two others of a similar kind from Toconroba, one of the 

 Fejee islands, to this city. 



Dr. Mitchill informs me that he has seen a coluber biceps in the possession of Pro- 

 fessor Walker, at Edinburgh ; a second in Quebec, in the collection of General Davies ; 

 and a third was shown to him at Washington by President Jefferson ; and from the fre- 

 quency of their occurrence, the doctor is inclined to believe that this animal is not a 

 Iusus naturae, but a regular production. If so, and his opinion is almost conclusive on 

 such Subjects, we must consider the real amphisbasna, or coluber biceps, as a new and 

 distinct genus of serpents. 



