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Show 60 REPTILIA. groove d s 0 as to resemble a slit beneath the eye, and further back.(l) . 5, Finally, there are others in which.the fossula: ~re wantmg, but whose muzzle is furnished with shghtly promment plates, cut obliquely from behind forwards, and. trunca:ed at the end, that they terminate in a wedge. Their body IS greatly com· so · b' h E pressed , an(l their back carinated. These mba It t e . ast In-dies, and may constitute a distinct subgenus.(2) Schnerder has separated from Boa his PsEUDO-BOA.-SoYTALE, Merr. Which has plates like the Coluber, not only on the muzzle, but also on the cranium; no fossula:, a round body, and the head and trunk one uniform piece, as in Tortrix.(3) Daudin also has sepa· rated from it the Erices, or ERrx, Daud.( 4) Which differ in the tail, it being short and obtuse, and in the ventral scales which are narrower. Their head is short, and nearly of one uniform piece with the body; these characters would approxi· mate them to Tortrix if the conformation of their jaws did not for· bid it; besides, the head is only covered with small scales. There is no hook near the anus. vVe may approximate to these the ERPEToN, L'acep.( 5) Very remarkable for two soft prominences covered with scales on the end of the muzzle. The head is furnished with large plates, those on the belly have but little breadth, and the sub-caudal ones (1) The Boa broderie (B. hortulana, L.), Seb., IT, lxxxlv, 1, and the ~Ugant, Daud. V, lxiii, 1, which is the same;-the Bojobi (B. canina, L.) Seb., II, lxni and xcvi, 2, or Xiplwsoma araramboja, Spix, XVI. The B. hipnale, Seb. II, xxxiv, 1, 2, and Lacep. II, xvi, 11, appears to be nothing more than a young Bojobi;-the B. Merremii, Schn., Merr. betyr. II, ii, or Xiplwsoma dorsale, Spix, XV, of which Daud. has made his genus ConALLE, from the probably accidental and individual character of the two first plates under the neck being double. (2) The B. carinata, Schn., or the ocellata, Opp.;-the B. viperina, Sh. nussel, pl. iv. N.B. These two subdivisions form the genus XIPHOSOMA, Fitz. the C:t:!· CHRIS of Gray. (3) Scyt. coronata, Merr., Seb. II, xli, 1, Pr. M. liv. VII. N.B. The Scytaleof Merrem must not be confounded with that of Daudin, which is the Echis of Merrem. ( 4) Erix (hair), name applied by Linna:us to a species of Anguis. ( 5) Ept:lrt7'o~, Serpent. OPHIDIA. 61 hardly differ from the rest; the tail itself, however, is long and pointed.(l) CoLUBER, Lin.(2) This genus comprised all those serpents, venomous or not, whose sub-caudal plates are divided in two, that is, which are arranged by pairs. Independently of the subtraction of the venomous species, their number is so enormously great, that naturalists have had recourse to all sorts of characters to subdivide them. We may separate in the first place th€' PYTHoN, Daud. Hooks near the anus and narrow ventral plates as in Boa, from which these serpents only differ in their double sub-caudal plates. The end of the muzzle is furnished with plates, and their lips are pitted. Some species are as large as any Boa: such is the Vlar-Sawa or Great Ooluber of the Sunda Islands, Col. javanicus, Sh., which has been found more than thirty feet in length. Seb. I, lxii; II, xix, 1; xxviii, 1; xcix, 2.(3) The last caudal plates in some of these Pythons, and the first in others, are simple.( 4) This may sometimes be an accidental difference. CERBERus, Cuv. Nearly the whole of the head, as in the Pythons, covered with small scales, and no plates but what are found between and before the eyes; but the hooks at the anus are wanting. Sometimes there are simple plates at the base of the tail.(5) (1) Erpeton tentacule, Lacep. Ann. Mus. II, I, a name given to this genus by Lacep. who first described it; Merrem has substituted RHINOPmus. (2) Coluber, u. generic name for Serpents among the Latins. (3) This Ular-sawa or Python ametltiste, Daud., Boa ametltystina, Schn., of which we possess one great skeleton and several skins, brought from Java by M. Leschenault, is at. 1east closely allied to the Pedda-poda of Bengal (Python tigre, Daud.), Uussel, XXII, XXUI, XXIV, Col. boEBjormis, Sh., Boa castanea and albicans, Schn.; and it appears to us that all the pretended species of Boa. of the eastern continent are in fact Pythons. Ular-sawa, in the Malay language, signifies the River-Serpent. The B. reticulata, ordinata, rltombeata, Schn. are all Pythons. (4) The Bora, Russ., XXXIX (Boa orbiculata, Schn.). (5) We have seen these plates simple in one individual, and double in others of the same species, a proof of the little importance of this character. T<Ythis \ |