208 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



tioned never being found in the ordinary male adder. 

 The question therefore arises, Are all these so-called 

 small red vipers simply young female adders? This 

 could only be settled by obtaining specimens of 

 this colour of both sexes. I had long believed in 

 the distinctness of the small red viper from the adder, 

 from its constancy in size and colour, but had never 

 taken a male specimen until the 26th April 1901. I 

 was at that time investigating the Ophidia of Central 

 Dorset, and on the day mentioned took a specimen 

 locally known as the little viper. It was the usual 

 red colour, but a glance at the tail at once showed 

 it to be a male. I demonstrated the male organs to 

 the Eev. F. W. Brandreth, to whom I am indebted for 

 the opportunity of examining that most snaky neigh- 

 bourhood. The length of the specimen was 12| 

 inches. This viper is well known in that locality, 

 though of much less frequent occurrence than the 

 ordinary adder, which is abundant. The male adder 

 there is pale-grey with very black markings and 

 bluish-black belly, not in the least like the small 

 red viper. 



Moreover, if the red viper were a young female 

 adder, a large number of specimens ought to show 

 the gradations of the one passing into the other. This 

 is not seen in any of the hundreds of female adders I 

 have examined. 



Distribution. — On account of its infrequent occur- 

 rence, and the absence of authentic county records, it 



