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Show 68 REPTILIA. reptile of'the French Sugar isla.nds; it is y~llowish or greyis~," more or less yaried with broWnlsh, and attams the length of s1x feet; it lives at'\ong the sugar-canes, where it feeds on rats and occasions the death of many of the slaves.( 1) The bead of some of these Trigonocephali with double subcau-dal scales is furnished with plates.(2) Others, along with the small scales on the head, have double plates beneath the tail, with the exception of. the very .extr~mity, which is merely furnished above and beneath with small Imbricated scales and terminates ii1 a little spur.(3) Of this number is the ' Grot. mutus, L.; Col. alecto, Sh.; Seb. II, lxxvi, 1; Lachesis rhombeata, Pr. Max. No. V. Yellowish; the back marked with large black or brownlozenges; scales raised in the middle. It is found six and seven feet long, and is quite as formidable as the Rattlesnake. VIPERA, Daud. The Vipers, most of which were confounded with the Colubers by Linnreus, on account of their double sub-caudal plates, require to be separated from them from the circumstance of their having poisonous fangs. There are also some serpents which naturally belong to this division, whose sub-caudal plates are either wholly or partially simple. They are all distinguished from the Rattlesnakes and the Trigonocephali by the absence of the pits behind the nostrils. In some the head is only furnished with imbricated and carinated scales like those on the back.( 4) Such is Vip. brachyura, Cuv.; Seb. II, xxx, 1. (The Minute Viper.) The intensity and activity of its poison render it one of the most terrible of the genus.(s) (1) Here comes the Trimeresure vert, Lacep., An. Mus. IV, lvi, 2, or Boodr(Yjlam, ll.ussel, Serp. Corom., IX, which sometimes has two or three entire plates under the root of the tail; this, however, is but an individual accident.-Add, C(Yjlhicu bilineatus, Pr. Max. No. V;-C. atrox,·-C.jacaraca. (2) Fitzinger appropriates the name of TnxaoNoCEPHA.Lus to this subdivisicn. (3) It is the genus LACHESis, Daud., adopted by Fitzinger, but badly charac· terized; the sub-caudal plates are certainly double, almost to the very end, where there is nothing but very small scales. l>r. Max. gives a correct view of it. ( 4) This, with the following division, forms the subgenus EcHIDNA of Merrem, which, with his Echis, of which we shall speak hereafter, composes his genus VI• PERA.. Fitzinger arranges our three first divisions in three genera, which ·he names VIPERA, ConltA., andAsPis. (5) Add the .ll,spic. Lacep. II, ii, 1 ( Vip. ocellata, Lath.), a lar§e species allied to the atropos, Lin. Mus. Ad. Fred. XIII; but very different from the aspis of Linna:us, which is a mere variety of the common species;- Pip. Clotho, Seb. 11, xciii, 1;Vip. lachesis, Id., XCIV, 2;-the Daboie, Lacep., 11, xiii, 2, or the brasilienne,Jd. IV, 1;-the Pip. elegante, Daud., Russel, VII, &c. OPHIDIA. 69 In others the head is covered whh small granulated scales, as for instance, Col. berua, L. (The Common Viper.) Brown; a double row of transverse spots on the back; a range of black or blackish spots on each flank. Sometimes the dorsal spots coalesce in transverse bands, and at others they all form one zig-zag longitudinal band, in which state it is the Golub. aspia, L.,( 1) which is sometimes called .!lspic in the neighbourhood of Paris. Individuals are found perfectly black.(2) Vip. illyrica, Aldrov. 169; Col. ammodytes; Vipere a muaeau cornu; Jacquin., Collect. IV, pl. xxiv and xxv. Similar to the common species, but particularly distinguished from it by a small soft horn co.vered with scales that projects from the end of its muzzle. It is found in Dalmatia, Hungary, &c. Col. cerastes, L.; Le Ceraste, Lacep. II, 1, 2. Remarkable for a small pointed horn on each eye-brow; it is greyish, and hides itself in the sand, in Egypt, Lybia, &c. It is often mentioned in the writings of the ancients. J7ip. lophophris, Cuv.; Vipere a panache, Voy. de Patterson, pl. xv. A little bundle of short horny threads on each eye· brow instead of the horn. From the environs of the Cape. Other Vipers, similar in general to the preceding ones, have three plates somewhat larger than those which surround them on the middle of the top of the head.(3) Col. cheraea, L.; Col. berus, Laurent. and Daud. Very similar to the common Viper, and distinguished from it by the aforesaid three plates. It is a rarer and smaller species, and said to be more venomous.( 4) Some individuals are almost entirely black, called Black Vipers- Colub. prester, Laurent. pl. iv, f. 1.(5) (1) .O.apis, a Setpent of J<~gypt, of which there were several species. One of them, from the dilatability of its neck, must have been the Haje. (2) Berua is the name of a serpent only used by the authors of the middle century, such as Albert, Vincent de Beauvais, &c. and then for an aquatic species, probably the Col. natrix. The Vipere de Charas, of which Laurenti endeavoured to make a species, and which is the Col. aspis, Gmel., is the same as this common Viper, which, in my opinion, is the true berus of Linnceus, who on this point only cites Aldrov. 115, which is this species. (3) This subdivision has furnished Men·em with his genus PELIA.S. (4) It is the lEaping of the Swedes (;:esping, colTuption of aspic) undoubtedly figured in the Stockhol. Mem. 1749, pl. vi. Laurenti, however, Spec. Medic. P· 97 and pl. ii, f. 1, has applied it to the name of berus. It is also the Peliaa herua, Merr.i Vip. berus, Fitzinger. (5) Prester, 1rp11tr8n~, the Greek name of a Serpent, considered by several authors as identical with the dipsa8, from n-p11&tiv, to burn. \ |