EUROPEAN REPTILES. 



225 



length, lives on vegetables and insects, and burrows in the 

 ground during the winter season. Of the Turtles, the 

 species known as the Coriaceous — which attains a larire 

 size— inhabits the Mediterranean; and the Loggerhead 

 visits the warmer parts of the Atlantic, occasionally stray- 

 ing into our British seas. 



Serpents are distributed over all the hot and temperate 

 regions of the world, though most numerous, as well as 

 most venomous, in inter-tropical countries. Europe, how- 



COMMON VIPER. 



ever, is happily free from the more dangerous species. It 



is the Yiper that ventures further north than any other of 



the hateful tribe, three species being European. The 



Common Viper inliabits Europe and Temperate Asia, 



even to Lake Baikal, in the Altai Mountains ; it is not 



unknown in England, and is common in the Highlands of 



Scotland, but penetrates no further westward than the 



Seine, nor does it pass the Alps. 



Nine or ten species of innocuous serpents are European, 

 (710) 15 



