NOTES FROM DEVON AND CORNWALL. 3875 
and size of these shields, with the typical V. berus. In two 
specimens the eye is situated above the fourth and fifth upper 
labials, and not above the fourth alone ;* another specimen is, in 
this respect, intermediate between the two extremes. The 
character of the more prominent rostral canthus is not constant. 
The best character for distinguishing V. berus from V. aspis 
still remains in the shape of the end of the snout, which is blunt 
in the former and more or less distinctly turned up in the latter, 
although not of absolute value, as already pointed out by Tourne- 
villet and F. Miiller.{ Next comes the number of series of 
scales between the labials and the eye, viz., one series in V. berus, 
two in V. aspis, which character bas been regarded as the most 
constant by Jan, Lataste, and Tourneville; however, there is, in 
the Natural History Museum, a specimen of V. berus, a pregnant 
female from France, which shows two series; and I must also 
refer the reader to a passage in Strauch’s ‘Schlangen des 
Russischen Reiches,’ p. 210, which shows that specimens with 
two series are not infrequent in some parts of Russia. 
Lastly comes the character of the development of the sincipital 
shields, which, if taken by itself, will frequently mislead. As to 
characters taken from the proportions and scaling of the body 
and the coloration, I need say nothing, for they are well known 
to vary to such an extent as to be useless as specific distinctions. 
Leydig § has, it is true, pointed out a microscopical difference in 
the structure of the scales of the two species, but its value as a 
_ distinctive character requires to be confirmed by the investigation 
of a larger series of specimens. 
OKNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM DEVON AND CORNWALL. 
By JouHn GATCOMBE. 
My last notes having ended on September 29th, 1884, and 
having been from home until the end of December following, I 
commence those for the present year from January 15th, at which 
* Leydig, “‘ Einheim. Schlangen,” Abh. Senckenb. Ges. xiii. 1883, pl. 1, 
fig. 8, figures a German specimen with the eye above the fourth labial only. 
+ Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1881, p. 41. 
t Verh. Nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 1885, p. 694. 
§ Arch. f. Mikr. Anat. 1878, pl. xxxii. 
