INDIAN SERPENTS. 
27 
“ Quelques serpens venimeux (says Cepede) ont quelquefois entre les yeux trois 
£S ecailles nn peu plus grandes que celles du dos.”* This peculiarity, however, does 
not apply to the laminae in the present subject. 
In the observations on the Bodroo Pam (No. XX.), reference was made to a paper 
lately published in the Philosophical Transactions, “ on the Orifices found in certain 
st venomous Snakes situated between the nostril and the eye:” of which the three 
subjects immediately preceding afford examples. 
Similar orifices in the rattle snake had long since been described, and were sus- 
pected of being the external organs of hearing ;t but were regarded as peculiar to the 
Crotalus, and had not been found, so far as I know, in any of the other serpent tribe, 
till discovered in the yellow snake of Martinico. 
On a cursory inspection of several collections in London, these orifices were 
found in three of the genus Boa ; and in eleven of the genus Coluber ; exclusively of 
the Martinico snake, the Bodroo Pam, the two subjects last described, and two others 
lately received from the West Indies. In all, three Bose, and fifteen or sixteen 
Colubri. 
Hitherto the orifices have only been found in venomous serpents ; but in none of 
the genus Anguis. 
It being intended, in a subsequent fasciculus, to give the figures explanatory of Mr. 
Home’s anatomical investigation, it will be sufficient to remark here, his having 
clearly ascertained that the orifice near the eye in these venomous serpents, has no 
connexion whatever with the auditory organ. 
No. XXIII. 
% 
COLUBER. 
Scuta Abdominalia 3101 
(-303 
Squama Subcaudales 9 3 J 
Called by the natives 
The head small, short-ovate, obtuse, covered with nine laminae. The first pair 
between the nostrils, rounded in front ; the next pair square and larger ; the middle 
lamina between the eyes heart-shape, the lateral semilunate ; the semicordate pair long 
and obtuse. 
The mouth large ; the teeth small ; no fangs. The eyes large and globular. The 
nostrils wide. 
* Hist. Nat. V. II. Discours, p. 67. 
+ Phil. Transact. Vol. XIII. p. 26. 
