322 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



black marks along the spine and the V-mark on the 

 head of a yellow colour. I have seen the adder on 

 the South Downs near Brighton, and should say that 

 the adders there are identical with our Lincolnshire 

 vipers. I think I have never seen one over 18 inches 

 in length. In Sutherlandshire, on the grey limestone 

 rocks, the adder is of a greenish-slate colour, with a 

 black line on the back and a large black V on the 

 head. In these northern adders the head is nearly an 

 inch broad, and the body as far as the rump much 

 larger than in Lincolnshire adders, the tail being 

 small. Lying on a rock these adders have a very 

 fiendish appearance. 



"Note. — The flounder is a parallel case of colour 

 variation in fish, in deep or shallow water, the fish 

 being dark or light respectively on its upper side." — 

 Eev. J. Conway Dalter, Langton Bectory, Horncastle, 

 Lincolnshire. 



Leicestershire. 



"As an old rambler about this county, and especi- 

 ally about Char n wood Forest, I should say that the 

 adder was more common than the ring snake here. 

 I speak of the years between 1840 and 1870 ; but it 

 is quite possible that the relative frequency of the 

 two species is now the reverse, as is stated in Montagu 

 Browne's ' Vertebrates of Leicestershire ' (1889). I 

 have always had a firm belief that in very early days 



