NORTHUMBERLAND and DURHAM: The viper or adder is a typical sufficient reptile of those two northern counties. They appear to place in an look because the climate turns hotter. Adders like to lie coiled on some rock within the rays of the solar. You usually see them mendacity on the unpaved forest tracks which run by means of heatherland and the huge conifer forests. The southern flanks of the Rothbury Hills are a favorite place for adders. Early this 12 months I used to be up on Simonside, which on a transparent day will be seen from the town of Newcastle upon Tyne. There on the forest street lay what I at first took to be a size of deserted rope. As I approached I noticed the coil transfer. It was a giant adder and it was sunning itself on the unmetalled street. I estimated its size at over two toes and its intercourse as feminine for the she-adder is almost at all times bigger than the male. It was actually the largest adder I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen many. After I touched it with the tip of my stick it raised its head and shot out a flickering black Y-shaped tongue.
To the naturalist the British snakes are pretty simply distinguished for there are however three species right here: the grass or ringed snake, which is a greenish olive; the adder or viper, which is decidedly marked in black and gray; and the graceful snake, which is a uncommon reptile frequenting remoted localities within the far south of England.
