236 OPHIDIA. 



Vipera aspis. 



Vipera aspis et pr ester, Dum. et Bib. vol. vii. p. 1406. 

 Vipera aspis, Buon. Faun. Ital. (figured). 

 Vipera Eedii, Sciiinz, Em^op. Faun. vol. ii. p. 54. 



Desckiption. — Head depressed, heart-shaped, covered with 

 small scales, very distinct from the body ; muzzle blunt, 

 thin, covered with small plates ; scales with six faces, 

 oblong, imbricated and keeled, at least on the hinder portion 

 of the body, which is much thicker than the anterior part ; 

 the two poison-fangs in the upper jaw are less than three 

 lines in length, the other teeth are small ; scales in twenty- 

 one rows, counted longitudinally; ventral plates, 140 to 

 165 ; subcaudal sometimes up to forty-six pairs in the male, 

 sometimes not more than thirty-three pairs in the female ; 

 tail distinct from the body, ending in a sharp horny point, 

 occupying, in the male, one -seventh or one -eighth part of 

 the entire length, but in the female not more than a ninth 

 or tenth. 



This species may be most readily distinguished from the 

 following by the bluntness of the muzzle, which in the 

 latter is prolonged into a sort of snout. The colouring 

 varies extremely in different individuals ; in general the 

 ground colour of the body is ash-grey or nearly black, with 

 a black waved stripe along the back, sometimes continuous, 

 but often broken up into contiguous, distinct, angular or 

 rounded spots, the lower parts being steel-grey or reddish, 

 with irregular white or light marks ; beneath each eye is 

 a black spot, ranning obliquely to the corner of the mouth ; 

 sometimes a large dark mark occupies the centre of the 

 head. 



The variety V. oceUata is grey, with reddish tinge 

 above, and three rows of rounded spots edged with black ; 

 belly black, marbled with dull yellow. V. Eedii is marked 



