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.
The species of snakes most dangerous to man are found in the warmer regions of Asia. India especially is infested by the famous Cobra-di-Capello (Naja tripudians), which possesses the highly remarkable faculty of dilating its neck in the form of a hood when irritated, and whose sculptured image appears on almost all the Hindu monuments.
We shall describe in a separate section (see below, F.) the Hydrophiinæ, or Sea-snakes, a large number of species of which frequent the shores of the Indian Ocean, the Strait of Malacca, the China Sea, the Moluccas, Celebes, and North Australia. In the case of certain species the area of distribution includes the whole of the tropical and sub-tropical zones of the Pacific Ocean, as far as the West Coast of America. It is therefore preferable to group them together for the purpose of comprehensive study.
Besides the above, the continent of Asia harbours a multitude of poisonous snakes belonging to the two Families Colubridæ and Viperidæ.