63 OUR REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS. 
I recently examined a specimen 3 feet 1 inch in length, in the 
possession of Mr, Adsetts, of Derby, which had been killed near 
Belper. 
Mr. Hutchinson writes me that he has received various speci- 
mens from the vicinity of Derby, and he considers the ringed snake 
“fairly common” in his locality. One example came under his 
notice as it was in the act of swallowing a frog at Littleover, within 
two miles of Derby. 
The ringed snake also occurs at Bretby, and near Woodville. I 
have not heard of its appearance near Burton since 1885. 
In Leicestershire the ringed snake is widely distributed, but is 
not common. ) 
5, Viper or Adder. VipERA BERUS, LINN. 
Very local in Derbyshire, and almost confined to the North 
Derbyshire Moors. Has occasionally occurred near the Leicester- 
shire border,—such specimens being probably strays from Charnwood 
Forest, Breadsall Moor (E. Brown) and Darley Dale (A. G. Darwin). 
It occurs at Chartley Park, Cannock Chase, and other places in 
Staffordshire, but is decreasing in numbers as its haunts become 
drained and the land cultivated. It was formerly abundant at 
Chartley, where Sir Oswald Mosley records that in a single day’s 
shooting he has ‘disturbed several of them; and their venomous 
bite has sometimes proved fatal to valuable pointers, which stand at 
them as if they had the scent of game.” (Natural History of Tut- 
bury, page 60). 
Although the viper varies a great deal individually both in 
ground-colour and markings, this is largely a matter of sex: bright 
light-coloured specimens, with a black well-defined zig-zag dorsal line, 
being males, whilst the shorter, thinner-tailed females are brown or 
reddish, with the markings more indistinct. 
In Leicestershire the viper is almost confined to Charnwood 
Forest, where I have found it at least as plentiful as the ringed 
_ snake. 
