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Show 70 REPTILIA. Next come those Vipers in which the head is furnished with plates almost like that of the Colubers. Of this number some are so exactly similar to the most common Vipers, that there is nothing but these plates to distinguish them.( 1) Such is Col. hremachates, L.; Seb. II, !viii, 1, s. Reddish brown mar-bled with white; muzzle obliquely truncated beneath. From the Cape. NAIA. Vipers with the head furnished with plates, and the anterior ribs susceptible of being raised up and drawn forwards, so as to. dilate that part of the trunk into a disc more or less broad. The most celebrated species is the Col. naia, L.; Naia tripudians, Merr.; Serpent a lunettes, or Cobra capella of the Portuguese in India; Seb. II, 85, 1, 89, 1-4, &c.; Lacep. II, iii, 1, so called from a black line resembling the figure of a pair of spectacles traced on the widened portion of its disc. It is extremely poisonous, but it is said that the root of the Orphiorhyza mungos is a sure antidote against the effects of its bite. The jugglet·s of India tame and teach it to dance, having previously extracted the fangs. The same use is made of another species in Egypt, the Col. haje, L.; L'Haje, Geoffr., Egypt. Rept. pl. vii; and Savign. Id. Suppl. pl. iii, whose neck is not so wide, and which is greenish bordered with brownish. The jugglers of that coun· try, by pressing on the nape of the neck with their finger, throw it into a kind of catalepsy which renders it stiff and immovable, or turn it into a rod, as they term it. Its habit of raising itself up when approached, induced the ancient Egyptians to believe that it was the guardian of the fields it inhabited. They made it the emblem of the protecting divinity of the world and sculptured it on each side of a globe upon the gates of their temples. It is indubitably the serpent described by the ancients under the name of the .B.sp of Egypt, .!lsp of Cleopatra, &c. • (1) Merrem has formed his genus SEPEDON from this subdivision. Add, Co/.11. ntgrum, Scheuchz., Phys. Sacr., lV, dccxvii. N.U. The Opltis, Spix, Serp. XVII, must be a venomous serpent, similar to these Sepedons,. but one ~hose poison fangs are preceded by some small simple teeth .. Not h~vmg seen h1s species, I fear it is one of those Colubers with large posterior maxillary teeth before mentioned, several of which are at least liable to the suspicion of being poisonous. OPHIDIA. 71 ELAPs, Schn., partim.( 1) Vipers with a head furnished with plates, very differently organized from the N aire. They are not only deprived of the power of dilating their ribs, they cannot even dilate their jaws, on account of the shortness of the tympanal, and particularly of the mastoid bones, the result of which is, that their head, like that of the Tortrices and Amphisbrenre, is of one uniform piece with the body. The most common species, is Col. lemniscatus, L.; Seb. I, x, ult. and II, lxxvi, 3. A white ground marked with triple black rings; tip of the muzzle black. It inhabits Guiana where it is greatly dreaded, and where it causes an equal degree of fear to be extended to the Tortrix scytale, and the Coluber JEsculapii, although they are harmless, from their resemblance to it in form, size, and colours. There are several species of Elaps in the two continents with a nearly similar distribution of colours.(2) MICRURUS, W agl. Elaps with a very short tail. PLATURus, Lat. The head enveloped with plates, and double ones under the tail; the latter, however, is compressed in the form of an oar, which renders them aquatic.(3) Finally, there are some serpents which should be placed next to the Vipers, only differing from them in their sub-caudal plates, some or all of which are simple. They are distinguished from the Tisiphones by having no pits behind the nostrils. Sometimes the plates on the base of the tail are entire. (1) Schneider comprized among his Elaps all the serpents he supposed to be deficient in a separated mastoid bone, but of this he judged from external appearances, or the small degree of enlargement in the occiput; this character, there· fore, is only true in the Tortrices of Oppel or Ilysia. He paid no attention either to their scales or their venom. E>-«+, E;..o+, are the Greek names of a non-veno· mous serpent. (2) Such are E. anguiformis, Schn. ;-the Vip. Psyche, Daud. Vlll, c. 1;-Col. lacteus, Lin. Mus. Ad. Fr. XVII, 1, and better Seb. II, xxxv, 2;-El. nob. surinamenais, Seb. II, vi, 2, and lxxxvi, 1 ;-Col. latonius, Merr., I, 2, and Seb. II, xxxiv, 4, and xliii, 3, the same as the Col. lubricus,·-Col . .ftaviw, &c. Add, C. fulVUB, Gmel., of America. .B.m. Ed. (3) Le Plature a bandea (Col. laticaudatus, L. or Hyd1"U8 colubrinw, Sh. ), Daud. VII, lxxxv. \ |