sou APPENDIX. 



imlefs Boa means fomething more than I know it does, 

 the name is ill chofen when applied to any fpccies of poi- 

 fonous ferpents, becaufe it is already the proper name of the 

 large fnake, jufl mentioned, that is not viviparous, and has 

 no poifon. Pliny and Galen fay, that the young vipers are fo 

 fierce as to become parricides, and deftroy their mother up- 

 on their birth. But this is furely one of the ill-grounded fan- 

 cies thefe authors have adopted. The Cerafles is mentioned 

 by name in Lucan, and without warranting the feparate 

 exiflence of any of the reft, I can fee feveral that are but 

 the Cerafles under another term. The thebanus ophites, 

 the ammodytes, the torrida dipfas, and the prefler*, all of 

 them are but this viper described from the form of its parts, 

 or its colours. Cato mull have been marching in the night 

 when he met this army of ferpents. The Cerafles hides it- 

 felf all day in holes in the fand, where it lives in contiguous 

 and fimilar houfes to thofe of the jerboa, and I have already 

 faid, that I never but once found any animal in this viper's 

 belly, but one jerboa in a gravid female cerafles. 



I kept two of thefe lafl-mentioned creatures in a glafs 

 jar, fuch as is ufed for keeping fweetmeats, for two years, 

 without having given them any food ; they did not fleep, 

 that I obferved, in winter, but call their fkins the lafldays of 

 April. 



The Cerafles moves with great rapidity, and in all direc- 

 tions, forward, backward, and fide ways. When he inclines 

 to furprife any one who is too far from him, he creeps with 



his 



4 Lucan. lib. ixv 



