72 VIPERADvE. 



The specimen which I here figure, and from which I 

 give the following description, was taken in the neighbour- 

 hood of Fordingbridge, in Hampshire, and was kindly 

 forwarded to me by Dr. Thackeray, Provost of King's 

 College, Cambridge, by whom I am informed that, of 

 great numbers of Vipers which are annually destroyed in 

 that neighbourhood, about one in ten are of the present 

 variety. 



The ground-colour is a dull brick-red, with the usual 

 markings of the Common Viper, of a ferruginous brown, or 

 mahogany colour. The marks on the head are very simi- 

 lar in form; but the V mark is somewhat more divergent 

 than is usual in the common variety. The throat is white, 

 tinged with ferruginous red, and the belly is ferruginous 

 grey, with minute whitish dots, and a few larger dots of 

 reddish brown. The round spots on each side of the back 

 are rather more distinct, and somewhat smaller than in 

 the common sort ; there are also a few irregular reddish 

 white spots along the sides of the neck ; the upper lip is 

 white, barred with brown. The only striking peculiarity 

 in its form is the greater proportionate breadth of the head 

 behind the eyes, which in this specimen is equal to the 

 length of the gape. 



The plates of the abdomen are one hundred and fifty ; 

 those of the tail thirty-three pairs. The following are the 

 dimensions of the specimen here figured : — 



In. Lines. 

 Total length . . . . .10 



Length of the tail . . . . 11 



Length of the head . . . .05 



Breadth of the head . . . . 4 



A specimen has been particularly described by Mr. 

 Strickland, in the sixth volume of Loudon's Magazine of 

 Natural History, in the following words : — "Of a bright 



