332 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



Supplementary characters. — Supraocular well developed or broken 

 up into small shields. Nasal touches the rostral and the 1st suprala- 

 bial. Eye. — Diameter about equal its distance to the nostril, about half' 

 its distance from the labial margin ; 2 or 3 rows of scales between it 

 and the supralabials. Uh t>upralabial the largest of the series. 

 Sublinguals touch 4 or 5 infralabials and 2 scales behind. Infralabials. — 

 5 large normally, the 5th touching 2 scales behind. Scales in middle 

 of body 23 to 27. Ventrals not ridged laterally. Subcaudals divided. 



Distribution^— An inhabitant of Northern Africa and South- Fastern 

 Europe, it extends through Asia Minor eastwards so as to include 

 Baluchistan and Kashmir on the fringe of its distribution. 



Poison.— Nothing known. 



Dimensions. — Grows to 5 feet. 



Colour. — Grey or pale brown above, with a dorsal series of large 

 brown spots, often edged with blackish which may be confluent into an 

 undulous band, or with small dark spots or cross-bars, small dark lateral 

 spots, and vertical bars ; a large V-shaped marking on the upper 

 surface of the head, and a V-shaped one on the occiput, may be pre- 

 sent ; a dark streak behind .. the eye to the angle of the mouth ; and 

 usually a dark blotch or bar below the eye; whitish beneath, powdered 



with grey-brown, with or without dark 

 brown spots ; end of tail yellow. All 

 the markings sometimes very indistinct 

 (Boulenger). 



Azemiops fece — Fea's Viper. 



Identification. — (1) scales in midbody 

 17 (see Fig. 7). (2) 6 supralabials of 

 which the 3rd only touches the eye. 

 These two points- when co-existing will 

 serve to differentiate this from every 

 other snake. 



Supplementary characters. — Frontal 

 unusually broad, about 3 times the 

 breadth of each supraocular. Nasal 

 touches 1st and 2nd infralabials only. 

 Loreal present. This is the only 



lor n ,Po 



Suh 



Fig. 40. — Azemiops feae 

 (after Boulenger). 



poisonous snake with large shields on the head in which this shield 



