200 FAUNA OF SHROPSHIRE. 



VIPER, or ADDER. Provincial name, Etther. This, our 

 Pclias berus. only poisonous reptile, is easily dis- 



tinguished from the Snake by several 

 obvious characters. First, the head is of a different 

 shape, being wider across the muzzle, and the scale-like 

 plates on the top are more numerous and smaller than in 

 the Snake. Second, there is a dark mark, shaped like a 

 V, on the top of the head, and a wide dark zig-zag line 

 along the back. Thirdly, the shape of the tail ; this is 

 thick almost to the end, and tapers off abruptly to a 

 blunt tip. Fourth, the Viper is usually smaller (rarely 

 two feet in length), and duller in colour than the Snake. 

 In the field it will be found that the two last points are 

 the most useful to remember, as the Viper is a timid 

 creature ; if a glimpse of it is obtained it is generally 

 in full retreat, and probably only the tail can be seen as 

 it disappears. If this is blunt and dull-coloured it must 

 be either a Viper or a Smooth Snake, and the chances 

 are a thousand to one that it is the former it cannot be 

 a Common Snake. The nature of the place is also some 

 guide for as before mentioned the Snake loves damp 

 places, near water, but the Viper prefers dry and warm 

 situations. In Shropshire the Viper is not nearly so 

 numerous as the Snake. It is entirely absent from the 

 immediate neighbourhood of Shrewsbury, the nearest 

 places where it occurs being Nesscliff and Pirn Hills. It 

 is fairly numerous in the neighbourhood of Oswestry 

 and Ellesmere, on Rudge Heath and Whixall Moss 

 in the North ; and on Titterstone Clee Hill, and in the 

 Forest of Wyre in the South. The Viper varies a good 

 deal in its ground colour, but is generally either of a 

 dull brownish-grey, or a coppery-red hue : according to 



