DISTRIBUTIOX OP OPIIIDIAXS. 205 



ill Sicily, and probably also in Calabria. This distribu- 

 tion of species would appear to be modified by the nature 

 of the soil Avhich they inhabit : the first, in general, pre- 

 ferring heaths, marshy and wooded places ; the second a 

 dry and arid soil ; the third, rocky regions. We have 

 not observed varieties of these serpents produced either by 

 locality or climate ; but it is not so with several other 

 snakes of Europe, which arc spread over almost the whole 

 extent of that continent. We may cite, as examples, the 

 Coronella hBvis and the Tropidonotus natrix, and T, 

 viperinus. These species, the two former of which inhabit 

 almost all northern and central Europe, and the last as 

 far as the 50° N. Lat., are equally found in the south of 

 Europe, where they often form, besides a great number of 

 accidental, several local varieties. In Spain, for instance, 

 the Tropidonotus viperinus has the back longitudinally 

 rayed ; the same occurs in the Tropidonotus natrix of 

 the Island of Sardinia ; and specimens of this snake killed 

 in Sicily present also other slight differences ; the Coronella 

 Isevis also forms* in Italy a local or climatal variety, and 

 a variety with more clear tints, which is found in the en- 

 virons of Marseilles, and which replaces our Coronella in 

 the south of Europe. The Coluber ^sculapii, Avhicli in- 

 habits the south of Germany, is found in Dalmatia, in 

 Italy, and as far as Provence. The Coluber viridifiavus 

 has been found in all the south of Europe and of Grreece, 

 in Hungary, in Dalmatia, in Italy, in Sicily, in Sardinia, 

 and even in France and Switzerland. The Coluber hip- 

 pocrepis inhabits Spain and Sardinia, while the Coluber 

 Icopardinus is found in Sicily, Dalmatia, and Greece ; but 

 as far as I know, neither of the two species has been seen 

 in Italy. The Psammophis lacertina, common in Dalma- 

 tia, in Spain, and in other countries on the shores of tlie 

 Mediterranean, has not been found either in Italy, or in 

 any of the adjacent islands. The southern countries of 

 Europe produce several other species of serpents, which 



'■* I can confidently state that the character of the pretended Cohiber 

 IJiccioli, drawn from the undivided nasal plate, is purely accidental ; 

 as one may be convinced by examining the series of specimens of that 

 Coronella preserved in our museum. 



