Book excerpt: Excerpt from North American Herpetology, or a Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States, Vol. 4 Characters. Head elongated, oval, snout greatly prolonged; neck very long; body covered above with a strong cartilaginous shield, entire, with numerous short spines or tubercles on the anterior margin; and several knobs near the posterior border; above umber coloured, marked with irregular dusky blotches; abdomen beautiful white, and marked with numerous red blood-vessels. Anterior extremities with five palmated fingers, the three anterior only furnished with nails; posterior with five toes fully palmated, the three internal with nails. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.