VIPER (Let. ripera. viper. adder, serpent. for *rivipara, fem. sg. of ririporus. bearing liv ing young, from virus, alive purede, to bear. produce). A venomous snake of the subfamily Viperimc, (See VirEaro.E.) Nino genera and about 40 species are recognized by Gadow, all denizens of the Old World, and many known by other names and elsewhere described. (See ADDER; ASP: DEATII-ADDER: PUFF-ADDER: TREE-VIPER: and RATTLESNAKE.) The real vipers of the genus Vipera are European and Asiatic. and are typically represented by the common `adder,' viper,' ur 'kretizotter' ( betas), whose range extends from Great Britain (except Ireland) to Saghalien Island, and which is the only serpent in England except the water snake (q.v.). It rarely exceeds two feet, bong, and is very variable—gray, yellowish, olive, brown, red, or black, marked along the back with a zigzag band, most distinct, of course, in the lighter specimens. The head is fiat and tri angular, the neck small. the body comparatively thick, and the tail short and pointed. Vipers prefer heaths, moors, and stony places, where they can retreat to thickets and rocky crevices. They are fond of sunning themselves on warm days, but do their hunting at night, when they are very likely to ereep near camp fires, as do other nocturnal venomous serpents. They gather into tangled masses when mating in the spring, and the young are born in the fol lowing July or August. They hibernate during cold weather in holes, where several will en twine themselves into a ball, varying the degree and length of their dormaney with the place and climate. Their bite is not as a rule fatal to a healthy man, but is followed by great depression and nervousness, and the wound is long and troublesome in healing.
The Mediterranean countries, along both shores. have another species ( ripen( uspis), the asp (q.v.). From Italy to Armenia occurs the `sand-viper' (l'ipera animudytcs), which bears a fleshy 'horn' upon its nose; and a third species (Vipera latostei) inhabits Spain and Portugal.
It was probably of the first of these southern species that ancient writers told their tales, such as that when vipers entwined together they pro duced the ()rum angoinum, and similar state ments. A medicinal value was long attributed to the flesh, and other old superstitions cluster about the animal.
The African vipers are such dreadful snakes as the death-adder, puff-adder, and saw-vipers (qq.v.). One, especially characteristic of the Egyptian deserts. but known from Algeria to Palestine, is the 'horned viper' ((Wastes mrpa tus), which burrows in the sand during the day, leaving only its nostrils and eyes exposed, but goes abroad at night in search of the small animals upon which it lives, and then is most likely to approach Bedouin eamp-fires. It is a yellowish, faintly spotted snake, about two and a half feet long; and above eaeh eye stands a large, horny, spike-like scale. It is more vicious and aggressive than most vipers, and is greatly feared, for its bite is usually fatal. Another species ((Wastes vipers) is hornless.
The largest, most ornate and deadly viper is that scourge of India, Ceylon, Burma, and Siam, lInssell's viper (Viper(' or l'obola Russelli). ealled 'tie-polonga' in Ceylon. 'bore' around Cal cutta, jessur; and sometimes 'carpet-snake' or 'ehain-viper,' by Anglo-Indians. Its colors and markings are shown OR the Plate of FOREIGN VENOMOUS SERPENTS under SNAKE. It reaches a length of five feet, and its poison is swift and sure in its fatal effects. Fortunately. the snake is slug gish, and not easily provoked; and its loud hisses when disturbed serve to warn men away, so that fewer human lives are lost by it than by cobras. For an explanation of the poison-apparatus, ef fects of poison. and bibliography, see SNAKE.