different Species of Viper. 187 



correcting the observations made of it in the cage with those 

 accurately made of the animal when at large in the fields, 

 there appear good grounds for arriving at some more certain 

 conclusion than any that is satisfactorily received amongst 

 naturalists, who, by correcting the results of a sort of theore- 

 tical experiment, and of actual out of doors observation, the 

 one with the other, may ascertain the desired fact of there 

 either being several, or but one, species of viper. 



Fleming, unquestionably a perspicuous scientific systema- 

 tise!*, enumerates but twelve species of reptiles inhabitants of 

 these islands ; but of these twelve one is doubtful, namely, the 

 Dumfriesshire snake. It is not a little singular, that this cele- 

 brated systematist, generally so precise and accurate, upon so 

 vague an account as he has given of it, should class this snake, 

 or viper, of doubtful existence, among the actually discovered 

 and fixed species of reptiles, when both he and Leach concur 

 in discarding the black, blue, and red as distinct species of 

 vipers. The fancied discoverer of the Dumfries snake, as 

 Fleming tells the tale, says, " Only one specimen has been 

 seen," about 5 in. long ; so that " much," as is naively 

 remarked, cannot be said of its usual size. No, assuredly, not 

 " much :" can any thing ? Was it young or old; had it attained 

 full growth ? It is classed with the snake destitute of poisonous 

 fangs, yet presumed to be a variety of a smooth viper (in 

 Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, by Griffiths, it is proposed that 

 snake and adder should be used to distinguish certain of the 

 serpent form which are not venomous; and viper, those which 

 are : in that sense it is understood to be used by Dr. Fleming) 

 common in Germany and France : but was it venomous, or 

 not ? From the brief and vague account given of it, surely 

 nothing positive can be deduced. Of this opinion seems to be 

 Sir William Jardine, who, in a note to his edition of White's 

 Selbome, says, theNatrix dumfriesiensis (Dumfriesshire snake) 

 " seems to be of very dubious authority as a species." And, 

 moreover, from what Dr. Fleming says of it himself, and from 

 what E. N. D. (Vol. VI. p. 526.) says of the supposed red 

 viper, this Natrix dumfriesiensis would appear to be the young 

 of the common viper, as E. N. D. calls it, after Linnaeus, 

 Vipera Berus ; and, therefore, if deserving of distinction as a 

 separate species, it should have been placed as a variety along 

 with the now, it may be assumed, exploded distinct species, the 

 black, blue, and red vipers, as arranged or mentioned as 

 varieties in Fleming's History of British Animals. 



Besides the discrepancies already noticed in the classification 

 and biography of the Dumfriesshire snake, another anomaly 

 is to be considered, and which presents itself in Pennant's 



p 2 



