322 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
black marks along the spine and the V-mark on the 
head of a yellow colour. I have seen the adder on 
the South Downs near Brighton, and should say that 
the adders there are identical with our ene 
vipers. I think I have never seen one over 18 inches 
in length. In Sutherlandshire, on the grey hmestone 
rocks, the adder is of a greenish-slate colour, with a 
black line on the back and a large black V on the 
head. In these northern adders the head is nearly an 
inch broad, and the body as far as the rump much 
larger than in Lincolnshire adders, the tail being 
small. Lying on a rock these adders have a very 
fiendish appearance. 
“ Note—The flounder is a parallel case of colour 
variation in fish, in deep or shallow water, the fish 
being dark or light respectively on its upper side.”— 
Rev. J. Conway Dalter, Langton Rectory, Horncastle, 
Lincolushize. 
Leicestershire. 
“As an old rambler about this county, and especi- 
ally about Charnwood Forest, I should say that the 
adder was more common than the ring snake here. 
I speak of the years between 1840 and 1870; but it 
is quite possible that the relative frequeney of the 
two species is now the reverse, as is stated in Montagu 
Browne's ‘Vertebrates of Leicestershire’ (1889). I 
have always had a firm belief that in very early days 
