[Illustration: VIPERA ASPIS _After Calmette_] [Illustration: VIPERA LATASTII] _Scales_ in twenty-one or twenty-three (rarely nineteen or twenty-five) rows, with two apical pits, strongly keeled, those of the outer row more or less distinctly keeled, rarely perfectly smooth. Ventral shields 134 to 158 (usually 143 to 153) in males, 141 to 169 (usually 145 to 157) in females; anal entire; subcaudals 32 to 49 (usually 37 to 45) in males, 30 to 43 (usually 32 to 38) in females; the terminal caudal shield is sometimes shorter and less spine-like than in _V. berus_, quite obtuse in some specimens. _Coloration._--Grey, greyish-brown, brown, reddish-brown, coppery red, or orange, is the ground colour in individuals from the same district; in this respect sexual differences are less marked than in the preceding species, red or copper-coloured specimens being found in both sexes, and silvery white specimens do not seem ever to occur. In rare cases markings are entirely absent. In specimens from the greater part of France, Italy, and the Southern Tyrol (see Plate XIII.), the dark brown or black markings on the body are mostly in the form of narrow cross-bars, continuous across the back or broken on the vertebral line and often alternating with each other and with similar bars on the sides, thus producing a pattern not unlike that frequently found in _Tropidonotus natrix_; a narrow dark line running straight or zigzag along the spine may connect these cross-bars, and in rare cases it is so broad as to produce a zigzag band similar to that of _V. berus_. In specimens from South-Western France and the Pyrenees, rarely in some from other parts of France and Italy, there is a broad dark grey or brown vertebral band between two series of black or blackish-brown spots, opposite to each other or alternating; this band may be straight or wavy, sometimes forming a regular zigzag; there is another series of blackish spots or short bars lower down on the side, alternating with those of the dorsal series. The upper surface of the head may be devoid of any markings, or bear merely the two oblique dark streaks forming the branches of a [V]; or a dark cross-bar may be present on the snout, followed or not by smaller spots or a pair of oblique streaks on the occiput; the [V] on the back of the head may be united with the first cross-bar on the nape, and enclose a cordiform figure of the lighter ground colour. A light line sometimes borders the upper edge of the snout and the outer edge of the supraocular shield. A blackish band or a mere line extends obliquely from the eye to the first lateral spot; below this the upper lip is whitish, yellowish, or pinkish, with or without dark vertical bars on the sutures between the labial shields. The iris is golden or coppery red.