Lihmberg, Variation and distribution of the smooth snake in Sweden. 675 



be seen but as a dusky stripe on one of these specimens. The stripe on 

 the sides of the head is quite clear in two specimens but is lacking- 

 ill the other two. The dorsal spots are more conspicuous on the 

 anterior part of the body in the four brown specimens, less so on the 

 posterior. The dark blotch on the occiput is not much visible as such, 

 but the coloration of the upper surface of the head is a little darker 

 than that of the back. The belly is lighter than in the grayish speci- 

 mens, anteriorly yellowish, less speckled, posteriorly more speckled 

 with dark and white, partly cloudy, partly in tiny but distinct spots. 

 One of these specimens is bright coppery towards the belly; and also 

 has the lateral parts of the gastrosteges speckled with coppery and 

 brick red. The palest specimen is that from Gotland; it is nearly 

 fawncoloured with a faint tint of brickred towards the belly. On the 

 apex of nearly every scale of all specimens there is one or usually 

 two well defined very small blackish spots. 



The smooth snake is in Sweden found in nearly all provinces of 

 the southern part, from Blekinge to Upland and Bohuslau. Thus it 

 can be said that the smooth snake has about the same distribution in 

 Sweden as the oaktree (Quercus robur}. In Norway the smooth snake 

 is mainly found round the fjord of Christiauia, and along the south- 

 coast, at Arendal, Chistiansand, Ekersund and Stavanger, but seldom 

 in the interior of the country 1 ). The oak -flora also extends further 

 north along the coast, which shows the connection of the smooth snake 

 with the oak-flora. It thus seems quite natural that the smooth snake 

 has entered the Scandinavian peninsula from the south at the same 

 time as the oak -flora, and the with the same connected and upon it 

 more or less depending fauna. It then entered on the broad land- 

 bridge that in the first part of the postglacial time existed between 

 South-Sweden and Germany by way of Denmark and the danish islands. 

 The smooth snake is not found fossil in Sweden as in Denmark, but 

 it has probably been contemporary with the following: Cervus elapltus, 

 C. capreolits, Bos bison, Fells cafus, Meles taxus, Erinaceus europaeits, 

 Talpa europaea, Myoxm avellanarius, Mustela putorius and others. 



Some of these animals have long been extinct in Sweden (Bos 

 bison, Felts Cains') or at least confined to the most southern part of 

 the country as Cervus elaphtis. The others have about the same distri- 

 bution in Sweden as the oak, and the smooth snake, or possibly do 

 they not reach fully so far north. Usually the river of Dalarne is 

 regarded as the northern limit of the oak, but some individuals are 

 scattered further north, in Gestriklaud in suitable localities near the 



1) That it has been found once or twice in the mountains of Dovre as 

 high up as in the birchregion must be regarded as something accidental and 

 anomalous. 



43* 



