REPTILIA. | 267 
water, much like the harmless water-snakes of the Middle States, and like 
them may frequently be observed lying over bushes which overhang the 
water, into which they plunge at the slightest alarm. Another species, 7’. 
lanceolatus, or the fer de lance (pl. 86, fig. 3), is abundantly distributed 
through several of the West India Islands, where it inhabits all kinds of 
situations. Their favorite resort is the sugar plantations, where they prove 
fatal in many instances to the unlucky laborers. 
All the poisonous serpents of North America have been referred to in 
the preceding remarks, and none except the rattlesnakes, copperheads, and 
water-moccasins, are to be feared in the slightest degree. The last men- 
tioned species does not occur north of Virginia, nor does the Crotalus 
adamanteus, so that in the whole Middle and Northern States there are 
but two venomous species, the banded rattlesnake and the copperhead, 
both of which are readily recognisable. Nothing can be more ridiculous 
than a fear of the common watersnakes, greensnakes, blacksnakes, garter- 
snakes, housesnakes, and other species. It is true that many of these show 
fight when attacked, and many even inflict a wound with their teeth, though 
this can never be more than a scratch which may draw blood freely, but 
will not produce any more unpleasant consequences than the scratch of a 
pin or of the point of a knife. The same may be said of the blowing or 
hissing snakes of the genus Heterodon, usually termed viper or adder in the 
United States, and which present a formidable appearance from flattening 
the head and whole body when irritated. 
The family Viperid@, with the poisonous apparatus, as the Crotalide, is 
distinguished by the absence of the pit or depression on each side of the 
face. Of the 20 species and 9 genera of this family, none are found in 
America. ‘The most conspicuous and typical species is the viper of 
Europe, Vipera berus (pl. 87, fig. 2), which is pretty generally distributed 
and greatly feared, although far from being so formidable as the copper- 
heads and rattlesnakes of the United States. Great pains are taken to 
destroy the species, although ineffectually, owing to their rapid repro- 
duction ; in Gotha, Coburg, and Meiningen, a stated price per head is paid 
for them by the civil authorities. The famed Aspic or asp of antiquity is 
another species of viper (V. aspis) found along the Mediterranean. The 
horned-viper (Cerastes cornutus, pl. 87, fig. 3) is a common inhabitant of 
the sandy desert of Africa, and is remarkable for having a group of 
elevated horn-like scales over each eye. 
The celebrated Cobra di capello, or hooded-snake (Naia tripudians, pl. 
86, fig. 4), is a species which has been variously allotted by herpetologists, 
and even placed among the Colubrine snakes. It is an inhabitant of the 
East Indies, where it is often tamed by jugglers and taught to dance to their 
rude music. This class of persons appear capable of exercising some 
peculiar influence over the cobras, by means of which they are enabled to 
handle them with impunity. Another genus, of which one East India 
species, Platurus laticaudatus, is figured in pl. 90, fig. 8, has been 
referred to the Colubride. It lives in the water, and is very dangerous to 
bathers. 
471 
