ABSTRACT
AMONG the white and mottled serpents is the sabrin already described, and the alfordius or affordius, which possesses similar characteristics. 1 Tawny-yellow snakes, like the pareas, have a broad mouth and a wicked bite, but they are also exceedingly rapid, always moving on their tail. 2 Red snakes are worse than all the rest, though at the most eighteen inches in length, and often only a foot or six inches, 3 like the altinanti, which, writes Albertus, is more dangerous because of its guileful attack. 4 The cenchris, a lemon-coloured serpent, takes its name from the Greek word for millet, which is of a similar shade; its bite is as venomous as an adder’s. 5 6 Snakes that live in water have hard, rough heads, and present great diversity in their species. Among them is the berus already mentioned. Again there is the natrix, named from its swimming (natare). It spreads its poison in the water and can infect things from there which are eaten, with the result that an individual who tastes anything contaminated by it dies instantly. 6
