CERASTES. 
97 
in his admirable figure of this creature, has drawn 
the horns rather pointing forwards. The usual 
length of the cerastes is said to be from twelve to 
fifteen inches, though they occasionally extend to 
two feet. The colour on the back is yellowish, 
with a few irregular oblong spots of a deeper shade; 
the under surface of the body is of a pale lead 
colour. 
If the account which Shaw has given of this 
serpent, in the second volume of hisTravels, be cor- 
rect, it is able to endure a much longer fast than 
any of its fellow-creatures. He assures us, that one 
Gabrieli, an apothecary at Venice, who had resided 
for some years at Cairo, kept two cerastes in a well 
closed bottle for five years without any food. A 
little sand was put with them into the bottle, in 
which they burrowed ; and at the time our author 
saw them they were changing their skins, and, 
according to his account, seemed as full of vigour as 
if but lately taken. 
An object so common in Egypt, and so well 
known to its inhabitants, could not escape the no- 
tice of Mr. Bruce ; accordingly we find in his Tra- 
vels a very full description of the animal and its 
manners, illustrated by a well engraved plate, which 
has been considered as perfectly correct by one of 
the first naturalists in this country. Mr. Bruce in- 
forms us, that the cerastes chiefly inhabit the desert 
and sandy part of the eastern continent ; that they 
abound in the three Arabias, and in Africa; and that 
VOL. II. 
H 
