12 
DESCRIPTION OF 
No. VIII. 
COLUBER. 
Abdominal Scuta 24 1 
Sub-caudal Squama 32 
The head of equal breadth with the neck, oblong, depressed, obtuse; the rostrum some¬ 
what compressed. The lamina in front slightly emarginate ; the first pair between the 
nostrils, oblong, transverse; the next orbicular, larger; the three between the eyes, unusu¬ 
ally round; the posterior pair, short, semi-cordate. 
The mouth very small; the jaws nearly of equal length. The lower teeth, and the two 
palatal rows in the upper jaw, small, sharp, reflex: there is no marginal row. One fang 
appears on each side emergent from the sac, so small as to escape observation, on a transient 
view. 
The eyes lateral, proportionally large, orbicular. The nostrils also lateral, very small. 
The trunk, round, smooth, about the thickness of a goose-quill; in length eleven inches, 
and scarcely tapering; the scales smooth, sub-ovate, imbricate. The tail round, measures 
little more than an inch, not much smaller than, the trunk, but ends in a sharp point. 
The colour of the trunk, a light, yellowish-brown, with a dotted black line, running from 
the head to the tail, along the middle of the back ; and some fainter fillets on the sides. The 
head is black ; and the tail at its origin and near the point, is singularly marked with a 
black spot, whitish in the middle, and edged with whitish-brown lines. The scuta are of 
a pale orange colour, deepening near the anus; the splendent, sub-caudal squamae, resemble 
white porcelain curiously speckled with black. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
In June, 1 7 88 , while botanizing in the plain near Nerva, I rescued the subject now 
described, from the hands of some peasants who were about to destroy it. They could not 
inform me of its name, but assured me its bite was mortal: a fact afterwards contradicted 
by several of the inhabitants of Nerva, who asserted that it only occasioned pain. 
The peasants had hurt it, but it still remained active; showing however more disposition 
to escape, than to snap offensively. 
Being provoked to bite the breast of a chicken, it held firm hold for nearly a minute: yet 
the bite was followed by no symptoms of poison. 
The smallness of the mouth, and a reluctance to disfigure a subject intended for preser¬ 
vation, by opening the jaws too wide, prevented determining whether it had fangs or not: 
