COUNTY AND DISTRICT DISTRIBUTION. 249 
VIII. Trent Province. 
Vipera berus—On the east side of England the 
adder is less common than farther west, and also 
of a somewhat smaller average size, rarely being 
found more than 20 inches in leneth. Nevertheless, 
the largest adder recorded—or one of the largest— 
was from Seotton Common in Lincolnshire. It was 
killed by Myr F. Boyes of Beverley, who wrote to 
‘The Field’ thus: “I wish to record that, when on 
Scotton Common in Lincolnshire on Whit-Monday, 
IT killed a viper of extraordinary length and peculiar 
colour, the back of the head deep yellow and black 
bands; it measured 2 feet 11 inches full. This is the 
longest I have ever killed.” 
Several correspondents have drawn my attention to 
the fact that the adder is found in some marshy places 
in the east of Eneland—an interesting variation of its 
usual habit of rather avoiding damp spots. This is not 
the case in the valley of the Trent itself, where the 
adder is found to inhabit the sandhills mainly. 
Tropidonotus natric.—The ring snake is the most 
common ophidian all over the Trent Province, except 
in parts of Derbyshire, where it is less common than 
the adder. As this county is of a very different 
nature to the others, a different distribution of the 
serpents is only to be expected. The usual 
length of the ring snake in this province is from 
24 to 3 feet. 
