3(f / 
THE NATURALIST. 
HOUGH MEMORANDA CONCERNING SUNDRY REPTILES, FISHES, 
AND MOLUSCA, NATIVES OF THE. COUNTY OF YORK, 
By Peter Murray, M.D. 
Viper,— I confidently believe two species of Viper to be natives. The Black 
or English Viper, Coluber berus^ and the Red, or Coluber chersea. The latter 
has the lozenge-shaped marks along the back, and one heart-shaped on the head, 
but is much more flat as to the conformation of the head, though more cylindrical 
in the body than Coluber berus^ which, when compared with any Snake of equal 
lengthy strikes the observer at once as remarkably depressed in the form of its 
body. A most material specific distinction between these two Vipers is that of 
size; Coluber berm occasionally exceeding 20 inches in length, whereas C, chersea 
seldom, if ever, reaches beyond half that length. 
The Red Viper was rather plentiful on the rough and wild banks of the river 
Nidd, along Scotton Moor, before the late inclosure of the common; and in the 
very many walks which, during a residence of twenty years in the neighbour¬ 
hood, I have taken over that picturesque and rugged ground, I never fell in with 
the Black Viper, though often with the Red, and that in various stages of 
growth ; although, it must be confessed, v/ith none so very small and immature 
as finally to decide the question. 
The Red Viper is not inferior to its congener in venom, but may be considered 
less dangerous upon the whole, from its inferiority in power of jaw, and conse¬ 
quently less equal to bite through any strong thick covering, whether natural 
or ar:ti^^iaHw 
I do not recollect any serious result occurring to any huiuan being during my 
abode at Knaresborough, from the bite of Coluber chersea^ but I have occasionally 
known injuries to Dogs, and once especially to a fine Harrier belonging to the 
late lamented Charles Slingsby, Esq., which was bitten in one of the bind 
legs, and became presently paraphlegiac, and died within a few hours. 
As a constrast to Knaresborough, the large Black Viper is that most abundant 
in the vicinity of Scarborough, and may be met with plentifully on the moors, 
and on the wild and broken declivities of the cliffs, running down to the sea- 
beach, particularly to the south of the town, from the Spa to Cay ton Bay, where 
the ground is seldom trodden except by the foot of the botanist or fossilist, and 
where my path has never been crossed by the Red Viper, though ever and anon 
by Coluber berus. In such encounters the luckless Viper always endeavoured 
No. 12, Vol.II. 2q 
