PEPTIZES 



459 



Germany they are confined almost exclusively to the Rhine district, principally 



between Basle and Bonn. The wall-lizard, which requires warm, dry, sunny glades, 



has been found as high as 5000 feet in the mountains. 



.Escuiapian Of three kinds of serpents that demand notice as being in- 



snake. habitants of the southern countries of Europe, the .Esculapian snake 



[Coluber longissimus) is a harmless species, growing to a length of between 4 



and 5 feet. A special character of this species is the arrangement in from 



twenty-one to twenty-three longitudinal lines of the smooth shiny scales, which 



are sometimes slightly keeled on the hind part of the body. In colour it is 



generally greyish yellow above, or brownish, slightly dotted with whitish, while 



the under-parts are pale yellow. There is a yellow patch on the temple, and a 



dark streak behind the eye, and the upper lips are yellow. Great individual 



variation in colour is, however, common. Its distributional area extends from the 



west of France and Spain to the western shore of the Caspian. In the south of 



France the species is common ; in the southern parts of Switzerland it is also 



often met with, as it is in the south of Tyrol ; it likewise occurs in Salzburg, 



Carinthia, on the Austrian littoral, in Carniola, down the valley of the Danube 



from Pressburg, in the Bukowina, and rarely in Hungary and the Carpathian 



countries. In the Balkan Peninsula it is unknown, and in Russia has only been 



recorded from a few localities. In southern Europe this snake is mostly found 



on rocky or stony ground sparsely overgrown with bushes ; and in Switzerland 



it is found at a height of 4000 feet, in Tyrol at over 5000 feet. In spring it 



apparently dwells in the mountains, to descend into the valleys towards the middle 



of the summer ; it pairs near water, and after the deposition of its eggs returns to 



higher ground as the summer closes. 



The tesselated snake (Tropidonotus tessdatus), which belongs 

 Tesselated Snake. ,.,..,. 



to the same genus as the ringed snake noticed in an earlier chapter, 



like the latter, has nineteen horizontal lines of scales, and an elongated, three- 

 cornered head, with a dark chevron behind. In colour it is yellowish brown or olive 

 above, with four, often indistinct, horizontal lines of alternately placed blackish 

 spots, and below it is marked with yellow and black or red and black chequers. 

 This snake, which attains a length of about 31 inches, inhabits chiefly the middle 

 and eastern basin of the Mediterranean, ranging southwards into Egypt, and north- 

 wards to the middle Rhine and Bohemia, westwards to Lorraine and Champagne, 

 and eastwards to Turkestan. It is not known in the Iberian Peninsula, or in the 

 south of France ; it is found in Italy only on the mainland, and in Switzerland 

 seems to be confined to the Canton Ticino. 



So little does the southern viper (Vipera aspis) differ from the 



Southern Viper. ...... , ., , , 



common species that it is often described as a mere variety. As a 

 rule it maj r be distinguished at once by the snout being turned up at the end, as 

 well as by having two rows of scales, instead of one, between the eye and the 

 upper lip-shields. Although clearly pertaining to the central section of the south 

 European fauna, its range extends westward to the coast of France, eastward to 

 the Austrian littoral, and northward to the 49th parallel of latitude. From France 

 this viper spreads into Lorraine where its recurrence is, however, limited to the 

 Rocher de Phraze, between the villages Dornot and Xoveant, near Metz, It occurs 



