145
SOME FIELD OBSERVATIONS ON ESSEX
REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS.
By FREDK. J. STUBBS.
I.—THE VIPER (Vipera berus).
TWENTY or thirty years ago, I believe, vipers were abun-
dant in Epping Forest, but they are not so to-day; and, I
think, their entire extinction is but a few years distant. I
saw one near Theydon Bois in the spring of 1910, but had to
wait nine years before finding another, in spite of careful search
in the most likely places during the weeks when the reptile is
most noticeable.
Since 1910 several reports, from keepers and others, have
been received relating to odd specimens seen or killed, generally
in the Forest between Loughton and Epping, and especially
near Theydon Bois. During this period I encountered vipers
in small numbers on the coast, near Southminster, near Danbury,
near Aveley, and elsewhere. Yet I could never view it as being
a common Essex species, except, perhaps, in such places as Dan-
bury, where, in 1911, a man killed 72 vipers, receiving a small
reward for each one from the parish authorities.
In 1918 I had a trustworthy report of a viper, about 18 inches
long, having been killed on the roadside between Theydon and
the Wake. Several careful searches in the locality were, however,
fruitless. The following spring I heard of two others as having
been killed between Oak Hill and Debden Green, and on the
10th May (1919), Mr. Stanley Austin, Mr. P. W. Horn, and I
made a special visit to the fern-covered slope at the extreme
margin of the Forest, just below Oak Hill Farm. Here we found
a viper, pale grey, with blackish markings; but it was very timid,
and disappeared instantly in the tangled thicket. A few minutes
later, I saw a second individual, stretched across the twigs of a
hawthorn and basking in the sun. It was promptly tossed out
into the open and secured in a cap. The colour was a curious
shade of greyish pink, the dorsal markings dull brick red. The
coloration was protective in a very high degree, for it simulated
exactly the two shades of the faded bracken which here matted
the ground, so that we had difficulty in seeing it when the cover-
ing cap was cautiously lifted. I kept this viper for a week,
L