174 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



perfect a poison apparatus as any of the other European 

 Vipers, feeds entirely on grasshoppers and other insects, 

 and freshly captured specimens have been observed to 

 disgorge what proved to be balls made of the remains of 

 hundreds of insects. Orsini's Viper is said to be a very 

 gentle snake. In Lower Austria the village boys have 

 been seen playing with this viper, and Werner states 

 that, at Laxenburg, where the species occurs in very 

 great abundance, no accident from snake-bite has ever 

 been heard of. 



The distribution of some of the European Vipers is very 

 puzzling. The Common Viper, which is abundant in 

 Northern and Central France, is replaced by the Asp 

 Viper, V. aspis, in Southern France, and the Pyrenees, 

 while in Spain and Portugal it reappears to the exclusion 

 of the latter species. Although common in the mountains 

 in most parts of Europe, the Common Viper in Italy is 

 more restricted to the plains, the Asp Viper being the 

 commoner in the Alps. 



Orsini's Viper has also a curious distribution, being a 

 mountain form in Italy, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, whilst 

 in Austria and Hungary it is restricted to the plains. 



Russell's Viper, F. russelli, or Tic-polonga, as this 

 large and justly dreaded snake is known in Ceylon, is found 

 in hills, as well as m the plains of India, Ceylon, Burma, 

 Siam, and Sumatra. In this, a more or less nocturnal 

 species, frequenting open country, rarely the jungle, the 

 fangs reach their maximum development. The coloration 

 is very handsome, being, above, of a very pale brown, with 

 three longitudinal series of black, light-edged rings, which 

 encircle reddish-brown or even red spots, those of the 



