Our reptiles and batrachians; a plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs and tortoises indigenous to Great Britain . e more permanent, a darkmark between the eyes, a spot on each side the THE VIPER, OR ADDER. 35 hind part of the head, an obscure V, as though itbore the initial of its name on its crown, and abroad zigzag line down the whole length of itsbody and tail, apparently formed by the confluenceof a series of dark lozenge-shaped spots, with ir-regular triangular spots on each side, are the chieffeatures in the marking of this species. The scales,less visible wi
Our reptiles and batrachians; a plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs and tortoises indigenous to Great Britain . e more permanent, a darkmark between the eyes, a spot on each side the THE VIPER, OR ADDER. 35 hind part of the head, an obscure V, as though itbore the initial of its name on its crown, and abroad zigzag line down the whole length of itsbody and tail, apparently formed by the confluenceof a series of dark lozenge-shaped spots, with ir-regular triangular spots on each side, are the chieffeatures in the marking of this species. The scales,less visible without a closer examination, are alsodistinctive. Those on the top of the head are notlarge plates as in the innocuous snakes, but a greaternumber of smaller scales, three being larger thanthe rest. The scales of the back and sides aredistinctly keeled, and disposed in eighteen of the under parts vary in their number, butare generally from one hundred and forty to onehundred and fifty, with about thirty-five pairs tothe tail. It is seldom so large as the common snake,and the female, as amongst rapacious birds, is Winged Scarabgeus and Asps, from an Egyptian ornament, 86 AMPHIBIA, OK BATRACHIANS. We have already intimated the reasons whereforethe Batrachians are now separated, more widely thanheretofore, in a scientific sense, from the true Rep-tiles, although they are still associated in the popu-lar mind with them in almost indissoluble class includes those of the whole order Eeptilia,in its broadest sense, which at some period of theirlives inhabit the water, and are truly aquatic, and atanother are either wholly or chiefly are some very singular creatures in this group,such as the Salamanders, to which such romanticstories of their incombustibility pertain, and of whomit is said, If a salamander bites you, put on yourshroud. As late as 1789, a French Consul atRhodes, hearing a loud cry in his kitchen, rushed tolearn the c
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