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Show 760 MR. G. A. BOULENGER ON VIPERA RENARDI. [Dec. 5. two series of small spots on the sides; belly whitish, dotted or spotted with black. Those from Varnoe are intermediate between the latter and the Sarepta ones ; whilst two specimens, both males, from Saratov and Smeinogorsk are dark brown above with a darker zigzag band, the one from the latter locality being further remarkable in having the underparts uniform blackish, as in V. berus. In all the specimens examined by m e the labials and the rostral are spotted, speckled, or margined with black or brown; a well-marked dark postocular streak, extending or not to the side of the neck, and one or two /^-shaped markings on the back of the head are present. The tip of the tail is never yellow. Christoph found V. renardi common in the bare steppe around Sarepta; only on one occasion did he come across a specimen in a locality overgrown with willows and small shrubs. The following sketch of its distribution is taken from Strauch's ' Synopsis der Viperiden,' p. 53 :- " The Viper occurs also in the district of Uralsk, apparently in abundance, as our collection has received, through Count A. Keyserling, numerous examples from the vicinity of that town; and it is, according to Becker (BuU. Mosc. 1855, i. p. 473), very common in the steppe around Sarepta, where Christoph obtained the variety described by him as Pelias renardi The first record of its occurrence in the Kirghiz Steppes w e owe to the elder Gmelin (Reise d. Sibir. iv. p. 318), who met with great numbers on the Tschebarkul Lake, in the little Kirghiz Horde; it was afterwards found in the Emba Steppes by the late Dr. Lehmann, and in the steppes between the E m b a and Temir by Dr. Moritz; more recently a specimen was captured by Dr. Severzow on the Issembai, an affluent of the Ilek. W e know nothing of its occurrence in the Middle Kirghiz, but numerous specimens were caught about 1840 by Dr. v. Schrenck in the steppes near the Alatau, on the borders of the Urdshar, and in Tarbagatai, in the Semipolatinsk district, whence Pallas (Reise, ii. p. 493) recorded it from the Semijarskaja Stanija." In concluding I beg to express m y thanks to Dr. Herzenstein and Dr. F. Midler for their assistance in procuring the material on which these notes are based. EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXIV. Vipera renardi, from Sarepta. a-c. Male. d-f. Female. |