204 
ON THE GEOOEAPHICAL 
of tlie Geographical Distribntion of Ophidians, we now 
propose to treat more particularly of each region of the 
earth known to be inhabited by these animals. 
In commencing with Europe, we perceive that this part of 
the globe supports neither Calamars, nor Heterodons, nor 
Lycodons ; that the true Tree- Snakes are not found in it, 
nor even the Herpetodryas ; that it furnishes neither the 
Homalopsis nor the Boa; that the Colubriform Venomous 
Serpents and Sea-Serpents are never there met with ; lastly, 
that the true V enomous Snakes have no other representa- 
tives than several species of the genus Vipera. There is 
not one species peculiar to the central, or northern parts 
of Europe,' — almost all being equally found in the South of 
Europe, a region which produces several species that also 
inhabit the adjacent parts of Africa or of Asia. Yfe can, 
however, assign limits to some of the species, which affords 
room for some curious speculations. The common Viper, 
Vipera herus^ for example, inhabits all the central part of 
Europe, and appears also distributed in temperate parts of 
Asia, even to the Lake of Baikal ; it is also found in Eng- 
land^ and Sweden ; but towards the West, it is not found 
beyond the Seine, while the Alps appear to form the boun- 
dary of this species'!* on the South. In the southern 
and western parts of Europe it is replaced by the Vipera 
Aspis, the Aspic, which is found from Trieste throughout 
Italy and Sicily, in Switzerland, and in the whole of 
France, from the Seine to the Pyrenees, and probably 
also in the Iberian peninsula. J The southern parts of 
the east of Europe produce, on the other hand, a third 
species of this genus, the Vi'pera ammodytes, which is found 
from Styria to the south of Hungary, in Greece, in Dalmatia, 
[It is very common in Scotland. The Translator has specimens 
killed in Dumfriesshire, in Peebles-shire, and in Ross-shire.] 
t It is said that it has been also met with in the valley of the Po, 
near Florence, but in very small number. 
t [The Translator saw, in the apothecary shops in Madrid, and 
other cities in Spain, many specimens of the Vipera Aspis, of a yellow- 
ish olive-brown colour, with detached spots along the back, a slender 
body, and large head. He noted it at the time as “a variety of the 
common Viper none like our Vipera berus were observed by him in 
Spain.] 
