PELIAS. 233 



the flanks than elsewhere, disposed in nineteen longitudinal 

 rows, those of the tail in four or six rows ; ventral plates 

 from 191 to 210 ; 'subcaudal from fifty-eight to sixty 

 pairs ; Prince Buonaparte, however, says that the former 

 reach sometimes to 250, while the latter are occasionally 

 only forty pairs. The total number of teeth about seventy ; 

 the width of the head between the temples is three times 

 the space between the nostrils and the top of the nose. 

 The colouring of the upper parts is duU olive, or light or 

 dark grey, sprinkled thickly with minute black spots, 

 scarcely visible without a lens ; the plates of the head are 

 speckled with chestnut, with a patch of that colour from 

 the eye to the mouth ; on the nape is a large spot of dark 

 chestnut, and down the back a series of large rounded spots 

 of the same colour, flanked on either side by another row 

 of smaller ones; the parts beneath are white or dull 

 yellow, with numerous patches of minute black specks, and 

 with black marks on the margins of the ventral plates. 



Entire length, about 2 feet 4 inches, of which the tail 

 occupies the sixth or seventh part; sometimes a much 

 greater length is attained. 



The young are produced aKve. 



Inhabits Dalmatia, the environs of Trieste, Istria, Al- 

 bania, the Morea, and other parts of Eastern Europe ; also 

 Bakou, on the Caspian, and Egypt. 



Family VIPERIDiE. 

 Venomous Snakes of moderate size ; the upper maxillary 

 bones armed with generally two isolated poison-fangs. 



Genus PELIAS. 



Anterior portion only of the head covered with flat or 

 slightly concave shields, of which the central one is the 



