144 
ON THE PHYSIOONOMY OP SERPENTS. 
7. Coluber Corais, the largest known of this genus, 
attains the length of 8 feet, and the thickness of a child’s 
arm ; comes from Surinam. Its form is very robust, its 
head powerful, its muzzle thick. Its physiognomy re- 
sembles the genus Naja ; 17 rows of large scales ; colour 
a reddish-brown, verging on a grey-purple ; the young 
have transverse bands of a dark colour on the sides ; be- 
low, yellowish-white. S. 202 + 75. 
8. Coluber Melanurus has the head massive, and de- 
pressed, the muzzle obtuse ; 19 rows of scales, strongly 
carinated ; the labial plates are narrow ; the trunk is com- 
pressed, and the abdomen very angular. S. 218 + 92. 
Eemarkable for the changes of colour it undergoes with its 
age ; the young are of a fine shining black, with a dorsal 
ray of citron-yellow ; sides ornamented with a series of 
ocellated spots, with white centres ; cheeks pure white. In 
the adult, the ground tint changes to brown, often passing 
to an ochre-yellow above, the colour that represents dorsal 
ray ; the spots on the sides become indistinct, and only 
visible on the neck ; the posterior parts pass to blackish. 
Inhabits Java. The Isle of Celebes produces a climatal 
variety, recognisable by an acute angular mark on the 
upper part of the neck. Another local variety, characterized 
by two black dorsal rays, and a similar ray on the sides of 
the neck, comes from Sumatra. 
9. Coluber Pantherinus, a beautiful large species 
which inhabits marshy places in Brazil ; form slender ; head 
long and broad ; above pale-brown, almost totally covered 
by two series of very large spots of an irregular shape, 
which sometimes form transverse bands ; two dark rays 
on the neck, and two or three bands on the top of the 
head; 15 rows of very large and smooth scales. S. 
175 + 90. 
10. Coluber virgatus seems in Japan to replace the 
European C. quadriradiatus. Body compressed ; abdomen 
angular ; muzzle broad and obtuse ; above brown, more or 
less clear, verging to green or olive, covered with large 
spots or transverse bands ; the spots disappear with age, 
so that there only remain obsolete longitudinal rays ; 23 
rows of carinated scales. S. 240+ 110. 
