CHAP. XIII 



COLUBRINAE 621 



labials border the eye. The anal shield is divided. The general 

 colour is brown or reddish above, often with one or two lighter 

 stripes, with small dark brown or red spots ; two dark brown or 

 red stripes on the nape, usually confluent with a large dark patch 

 on the occiput ; a dark streak extends from the nostril through 

 the eye to the angle of the mouth. The under parts are red, 

 orange, brown, grey or blackish, either uniform or speckled with 

 black and white. The coloration is, however, subject to much 

 variation, and some specimens strikingly resemble some of the 

 Common Viper, which is also very variable in its coloration. The 

 resemblance is enhanced when the Smooth Snake broadens its 

 head by widening the jaws, as it is in the habit of doing. 

 Two such similarly coloured specimens are represented in Fig. 

 165. On closer inspection the differences are great enough, the 

 harmless snake having smooth scales, and the top of the head 

 being covered with large shields; while the Viper has keeled 

 scales, the top of the head being covered mostly with scales, a 

 vertical (not round) pupil, and, moreover, when attacked, usually 

 coils itself into a spiral disc with the head standing out in the 

 middle, ready to strike. However, these two species are some- 

 times mistaken for each other. The Smooth Snake prefers lizards 

 as food to anything else, but it also takes mice. The prey is 

 hunted chiefly in the late afternoon and in the evening, and is con- 

 stricted by the coils of the snake. When caught or even when 

 handled after months of captivity, the Smooth Snake bites 

 deliberately and firmly, selecting a suitable spot, for instance a 

 finger, opens the mouth widely and almost chews the spot. The 

 bite is of course quite harmless, and scarcely draws blood, few 

 of these snakes attaining a length of more than 2 feet. They 

 are viviparous, bringing forth about half-a-dozen young at a time. 

 The range of the Smooth Snake extends over the greater part 

 of temperate Europe, from England and the Iberian Peninsula to 

 Berlin, and south-eastwards to Asia Minor. In England it occurs 

 in a few counties only, for instance in Hampshire and in 

 Dorsetshire. 



C. girondica, of the South of France, Italy, the Iberian Penin- 

 sula and North-Western Africa, much resembles the English 

 Smooth Snake, from which it differs in a few points only. The 

 scales are arranged in twenty-one, rarely in nineteen, rows ; 

 usually the fourth and fifth labials border the eye ; and the rostral 



