CHANNEL PROVINCE, 265 
Hampshire. 
This is one of the few counties where all our 
six British reptiles are found—in this respect like 
Dorset. 
“ Vipera berus or Addev.—Universally distributed, 
including the Isle of Wieht, but most common on 
heht soils. The ground colour is most variable, 
either brown, or red, or grey, or almost blue, or al- 
most white. The country people declare that the red 
viper is a different species, and the line down its bach 
is not black but brown, yet perfectly distinct. The pro- 
portion of red vipers in the New Forest is said to be 
about one in ten of the venomous species. An ex- 
cellent observer in the island, the late Rev. C. A. 
Bury, who said that he often counted seven or eight 
adders in one walk in the spring, believed that vipers 
are always red when young, and had never seen a 
young one that did not answer the description of 
the so-called red viper. Another variety of the 
viper is almost black, the line only showing in cer- 
tain hghts, so that it is a safe rule to avoid black 
snakes when you meet them. These black vipers 
are found in the Forest and in the Isle of Wight.! 
The Forest people tell me that ‘adders is fattest in 
March month, which shows they have finished hiber- 
nating at that time. In Davenport Adams’ ‘ Isle of 
Wight’ we read of their bunching in winter. ‘Near 
1 Cf. Essex, Caermarthen, and Northumberland, pp. 279, 311, 332. 
