THE NATURALIST. 



ROUGH MEMORANDA CONCERNING SUNDRY REPTILES, FISHES, 

 AND MOLUSCA, NATIVES OF THE COUNTY OF YORK. 



By Peter Murray, M.D. 



Viper. — I confidently believe two species of Viper to be natives. The Black 

 or English Viper, Coluber berus, and the Red, or Coluber chersea. The latter 

 has the lozenge-shaped marks along the back, and one heart-shaped on the head, 

 but is much more flat as to the conformation of the head, though more cylindrical 

 in the body than Coluber berus, which, when compared with any Snake of equal 

 length, strikes the observer at once as remarkably depressed in the form of its 

 body. A most material specific distinction between these two Vipers is that of 

 size ; Coluber berus occasionally exceeding 20 inches in length, whereas C. chersea 

 seldom, if ever, reaches beyond half that length. 



The Red Viper was rather plentiful on the rough and wild banks of the river 

 Nidd, along Scotton Moor, before the late inclosure of the common ; and in the 

 very many walks which, during a residence of twenty years in the neighbour- 

 hood, I have taken over that picturesque and rugged ground, I never fell in with 

 the Black Viper, though often with the Red, and that in various stages of 

 growth ; although, it must be confessed, with none so very small and immature 

 as finally to decide the question. 



The Red Viper is not inferior to its congener in venom, but may be considered 

 less dangerous upon the whole, from its inferiority in power of jaw, and conse- 

 quently less equal to bite through any strong thick covering, whether natural 

 or artificial. 



I do not recollect any serious result occurring to any human being during my 

 abode at Knaresborough, from the bite of Coluber chersea, but I have occasionally 

 known injuries to Dogs, and once especially to a fine Harrier belonging to the 

 late lamented Charles Slingsby, Esq., which was bitten in one of the hind 

 legs, and became presently paraphlegiac, and died within a few hours. 



As a const rast to Knaresborough, the large Black Viper is that most abundant 

 in the vicinity of Scarborough, and may be met with plentifully on the moors, 

 and on the wild and broken declivities of the cliffs, running down to the sea- 

 beach, particularly to the south of the town, from the Spa to Cayton Bay, where 

 the ground is seldom trodden except by the foot of the botanist or fossilist, and 

 where my path has never been crossed by the Red Viper, though ever and anon 

 by Coluber berus. In such encounters the luckless Viper always endeavoured 



No. 12, Vol.11. 2q 



