THE SMALL RED VIPER. 209 
is a matter of some considerable difficulty to determine 
its exact distribution. F. G. Aflalo! mentions that it 
is found in Herts, Somerset, and Devon, also in parts 
of Scotland, and these three counties are usually the 
ones mentioned in this connection. He also refers to 
the capture of “a small red kind” in Fairlight Glen, 
near Hastings, in further reference to which he writes 
to me :— 
“T wish I could give you the accurate information 
you seek touching those Fairlight red adders, which I 
distinctly remember killing on two or three occasions, 
some twenty years ago. But I did not in those days 
—it must have been during the period 1881-1883, 
during which [ lived at Hastings—see any particular 
interest in a snake beyond its power of dying pictur- 
esquely, and all I can recall is the decided reddish hue 
of some of the adders (not all, mind) that we found 
thereabouts, and the belief among the villagers in the 
neighbourhood of Fairlight and Ecclesbourme that 
these red adders were more dangerous than those 
of normal colour. More than this memory does not 
spare me.” 
The Rev. H. A. Macpherson, in his ‘ Fauna of Lake- 
land, records the occurrence of a specimen thus :— 
“Most of the Lakeland vipers are grey or brown 
in ground colour, regardless of their sex. The only 
Instance at present known to me of the capture of a 
‘red’ individual within our limits relates to a viper 
! Natural History (Vertebrates) of the British Islands, p. 304. 
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