_Scales_ in nineteen (rarely twenty or twenty-one) rows, with two apical pits, strongly keeled on the back, less strongly on the sides, outer row smooth. Ventral shields 120 to 135 in males, 125 to 142 in females; anal entire; subcaudals 30 to 37 in males, 20 to 28 in females. By adding the subcaudals to the ventrals in a hundred specimens, the total numbers are 153 to 169 in males, 150 to 168 in females.
_Coloration._--Unlike its ally _V. berus_, _V. ursinii_ shows no sexual differences in the coloration. The ground colour of the back is usually yellowish or pale brown, sharply defined from the darker grey or brown colour of the sides; some specimens, however, are of an almost uniform brown ground colour. The light colour of the back is relieved by a series of more or less regular transversely oval, elliptic, or rhomboidal dark brown, black-edged spots, some or all of which may run together to form a wavy or zigzag band (Plate XII.). Two or three longitudinal series of dark brown or black spots extend along the sides, the upper series, if present, occupying the space between the series of spots continued from the postocular band and the large dorsal spots or vertebral band, the lowermost following the outer row of scales. Small dark spots and one or two [V]-shaped markings are present on the upper surface of the head; an oblique dark band proceeds from the eye to the angle of the mouth, and is not infrequently confluent with the branches of the occipital [V]. The rostral and the labial shields are uniform yellowish-white, rarely with a few small, blackish spots or with brown borders. The chin and throat are yellowish-white, rarely with some blackish spots. The ventral and subcaudal shields are black, with transverse series of small white spots, or grey checkered with black and white, or whitish with small round black spots; the tail is but rarely (females) tipped with yellow.
The form recently described as _V. macrops_, Méhely, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, is distinguished by a usually larger eye, the vertical diameter of which equals or a little exceeds its distance from the mouth, and the parietals are often broken up into small shields. The postocular dark band is often reduced, originating at some distance from the eye, and is not prolonged beyond the mouth. In this geographical race melanic specimens occasionally occur, which are dark brown or blackish above, the lower parts not differing from those of the typical form.