46 
ROOM X. 
Nat. Hist. 
joints, fitting one into the other, which the animal 
can shake and rattle at pleasure. There are in the 
Collection, several species of this genus, and some de¬ 
tached rattles, to shew their structure. 
The Tisiphone ( Tisiphone ) is much like the Rattle- 
Snake, but the tail ends in a small recurved spine : 
these are all peculiar to America. Most of the Snakes 
of this division have the tail simple at the end, and are 
found both in the Old and New World. Some of these 
(■ Cophias ), have the head covered with scales like 
those on the back, as the Fer de Lance of the French 
American Colonists ( Cophias lanceolatus), from the 
West India Islands ; and the Green Cophias ( Cophias 
viridis), the Purple-spotted Cophias {Cophias purpureo- 
maculatus ), and the Beautiful Cophias ( Cophias orna - 
tus ). The last three are the most beautiful, and the 
most poisonous snakes of India. 
Other species with simple tails, have the head co¬ 
vered with large shield-like plates ( Trigonocephalies). 
The Vipers have the same broad head as the 
Rattle Snakes, but they have no pit before the eyes. 
Amongst these the True Vipers {Vipera) are distin¬ 
guished by the head being covered with scales like 
those on the back, and by the nostrils being very large. 
Amongst these there are the Nose-horn Viper {Coluber 
nasicornis ), peculiar for two horns on the end of the 
nose ; the Cerastes {Coluber cerastes ), the male of which 
has a long horn-like scale over each eye, which being- 
absent in the female, has caused the latter to be erro¬ 
neously described as a distinct species ; the Puff Adder, 
or Short Tailed Viper {Vipera inflata), the most deadly 
snake of the Cape; and Russel’s Viper {Coluber Russeli). 
The Adders {Berus) have the head covered with 
granular scales and the nostrils moderate ; as the Black 
Adder {Coluber berus), and the Ammodyte Adder {Co¬ 
luber ammodytes) from the shores of the Mediterranean, 
very peculiar for the end of the nose being lengthened 
into a flexible horn. 
The 
