i 04 ?7;<2 Hijlory of ANIMALS. 
riegated Anguis, with obtufe, elliptic fcales. 4. The grey and yellow Anguis with 
larger fcales. 5. The fmall fcalled Anguis, called Scytale. 6. The long and fl’ender 
variegated Anguis, with a broad, flat head. 7. The large, variegated Anguis with 
the head very convex, and pointed at the extremity. 8. The larger, brown Anguis 
with a black belly. 9. The larger grey and white Anguis, with an obtufe tail. 10’ 
The little grey Anguis, with the back and belly of the fame colour. 11. The °rey" 
American Anguis, with very fmall fcales. 0 
COLUBER. 
rpHE abdomen, or under part of the body, of the Coluber is covered with fcuta 
j[ and the under part of the tail with fquammae or fcales. 3 
Coluber fcutis abdominalibus centum &? feptuaginta feptem , 
fquammis caudce oElaginta quinque . 
The Coluber , with the Jcuta of the abdomen a hundred 
and feventyfeven , and the fquammce of the tail eighty-five. 
t This is a very fingular and very beautiful fpecies: it’s back is of a plane, Ample, 
blackifh colour: it’s belly of the fame hue, but with an admixture of bluifh and more 
gloffy : the fides of the belly are very elegantly variegated with regular feries of white 
fpots, which arifes from the fcales being white at their edges in that part : the head is 
large and fomewhat flatted : the opening of the mouth is large, and the teeth are ar¬ 
ranged in a double feries, but they are all of a length : the throat is of a bright white; 
the fides of the upper part of the head alfo are white, and have feveral beautiful black 
lines on them : behind the head, there is a fine chain, as it were, of a bright and beau¬ 
tiful yellow ; this gives it the appearance of an ornament round it’s neck, and occafioned 
the Englifh name of the Necklace-fnake, and the Latin one of Torquata : the fcales of 
the back have each of them an elevated If ria, or ridge, along the middle : the noftrils 
are not prominent : it grows to three feet in length, and to a moderate thicknefs in. 
proportion, but it varies fometimes very confiderably in the colouring : the back, in fome, 
is entirely black ; in others, the fcales which cover it are grey, and fome of them 
only have black extremities, or tips: in fome alfo, in the place of the circle behind 
the head, that part is convex and black, and has a large white fpot in it. 
It isfrequont with us, efpecially about waters; it fwims extreamly well, and, though 
it frequently does this with it’s head above water, yet it will, at pleafure, go altogether 
under the furface, and twift itfelf at leifure about the ffalks of the water plants, where 
it will remain a long time. Mod of the writers on thefe fubje&s, have defcribed it: 
Kay calls it Natrix torquata ; others fimply Serpens, Anguis, or Coluber. 
Coluber fcutis abdominalibus centum & quadraginta quinque , 
fquammis caudee triginta fex> 
The Coluber , with the fcuta of the abdo?nen a hundred and 
forty-five, and the fquammce of the tail thirty-fix . 
This is the mod poifonous and mifchievous in it’s bite, of all the European Serpents: 
it grows to near three feet in length, and to a confiderable thicknefs in proportion : the 
principal, or ground, colour of the body is a dufky grey ; all along the back, there runs 
a broad brown line, which is dentated on each fide ; and, on each fide of this, there is 
a kind of continued bluifli line, formed of a feries of fpots of that colour, one of which 
is fituated in the fpace formed by every denticulation in the back line: the belly is of a 
bluifh-black, very bright and gloffy, refembling the colour of high-polifhed, fanguined 
deel; and, when clofely examined, there is found a fmall dot of a deep black at the 
apex of every fcale : the head is large and flattifh ; the throat is of a pale colour, and the 
mouth is large, and the edge of the upper lip is whitifh : the iris of the eye is of a flame 
colour; the pupil black ; and there is a blue fpace, forming an acute angle, which fe- 
parates the head from the longitudinal line on the back : thefe are the general charac¬ 
ters of the viper, but it’s colours vary fo extreamly, that there is no determining any 
thing with certainty from them : there often is a call of greenifh in the grey, that is 
i the 
