565 



tbMMON VIPER. 



Coluber Berus. C. cinereus, macula capitis hiloha^ vitta dorsali 



atra dentato-repanda. 

 Cinereous Viper, with a bilobate spot on the head, and a black 



flexuous or zigi;ag band dOwn the back. 

 Coluber Berus. Lin, Si/st. Nat. p. 377 » 

 The Viper. Penn. Brit. Zool. 4. p. 25. 

 Vipera. Gesn. Aldrov. Raj, SfC. Sj-c. 

 Abdominal scuta 146, subcaudal scales 39^ 



The Viper, which appears to be pretty geiie- 

 rall}^ diffused over the whole ancient continent, 

 and Avhich is by no tneaiis uncommon in our own 

 island, has been known from times of remote an- 

 tiquity, though all the particulars relative to its 

 nature and manners are even yet not fully under- 

 stood. It appears to vary considerably in colour, 

 from a pale or yellow-ferruginous to a deep or dull 

 brown, but all these varieties agree in being 

 marked by a continued chain or series of conflu- 

 ent rhomboid blackish spots, which commencing 

 at the back of the head, are continued to the ex- 

 tremity of the tail, growing proportionally wider 

 and more confluent as they approach that part, 

 forming a kind of transversly barred pattern on 

 its surface : the head is broad, somewhat flattened, 

 and bulges out more or less on each side at the 

 back part : the front of the head is blackish, and 

 on the upper part is a large divided and some- 

 what heart-shaped mark, or spot, the obtuse divi- 

 sions of which are directed backwards : the lips 

 are somewhat barred or variegated with black and 

 light grey or whitish, and along each side of the 



