This viper especially frequents dry, rocky, and arid hillsides, which are exposed to the sun. Like the adder, it hibernates in tree-trunks and old walls. It lays from 6 to 15 eggs, from which the living young immediately issue, provided with poison. It feeds upon small rodents, worms, insects, and young birds. Raptorial birds, storks, and hedgehogs pursue it and devour it in large numbers. [Illustration: FIG. 22.--_Vipera aspis._ (Natural size.) (From the Forest of Fontainebleau.)] Vipera latastii. Intermediate between _V. aspis_ and _V. ammodytes_. Snout less turned up into a corneous appendage than in the latter. Head covered with small, smooth, or feebly keeled, subimbricate scales, among which an enlarged frontal shield may sometimes be distinguished; 5-7 longitudinal series of scales between the supraocular shields; 9-13 scales round the eyes; 2 or 3 series between the eyes and the labials; nasal shield entire, separated from the rostral by a naso-rostral. Body scales in 21 rows, strongly keeled; 125-147 ventrals; 32-43 subcaudals. Coloration grey or brown above, with a longitudinal zigzag band, usually spotted with white; head with or without spots on the vertex; black streak behind the eyes; ventral surface grey, spotted with black and white; tip of the tail usually yellow or with yellow spots. Total length, 550-610 millimetres; tail 80-85. _Habitat_: Spain and Portugal. Vipera ammodytes. (Fig. 21, _3_ and _4_). Snout terminated in front by a horny appendage covered with 10-20 small scales; vertical diameter of the eyes less than the distance separating them from the mouth; upper surface of the head covered with small, smooth, or feebly keeled scales, among which an enlarged frontal and a pair of parietal shields are sometimes distinguishable; 5-7 longitudinal series of scales between the supraoculars; 10-13 scales round the eyes; two series between the eyes and the labials; nasal shield entire, separated from the rostral by a naso-rostral. Body scales in 21-23 rows, strongly keeled; 133-162 ventrals; 24-38 subcaudals. Coloration grey, brown, or reddish above, with a zigzag dorsal band, usually spotted with white; black streak behind the eyes; belly grey or violaceous; end of the tail yellow, orange, or coral-red. Total length, 550-640 millimetres; tail 70-80. _Habitat_: Southern Tyrol, Carinthia, Styria, Hungary, Danubian principalities and kingdoms, Turkey. Does not pass beyond the 48th parallel of North Latitude. This viper loves very sunny places, and hillsides planted with vines. It rarely hibernates. In districts in which it is plentiful, it is only necessary to light a fire at night in order to attract this species in swarms; this is the best method of taking it. Its food consists of small rodents, lizards, and birds. _B.--ASIA, DUTCH INDIES, AND PHILIPPINE ISLANDS._