72 VIPERAD&. 
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 30 
Length of the tail ‘ : ; a 10 
Length of the head < : : =, OuS 
Breadth of the head . : . : 0 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 
