A colour variety, of which I have examined a single specimen from near Vienna, is pale brown above, with four black lines along the anterior part of the body, and two small, yellowish, dark-edged spots close together on the back of the head, separated by the suture between the parietal shields.
Werner has described another variety, also from near Vienna, which resembles _Coluber leopardinus_, having two series of large, brown, dark-edged spots along the back, some of the spots alternating, others uniting across the back. Apparently very similar to the last variety, and also said to be suggestive of _Coluber leopardinus_, is the var. _scalaris_, Sternfeld, from Lüneburg in Hanover, reddish-brown above, with two rows of bright red, black-edged spots, partly confluent and connected across the spine by transverse bars producing a ladder-like pattern. Specimens of a uniform greyish-brown, without any markings, are very rare. The var. _veithi_, Schreiber, established on a single specimen from Carinthia, represents a case of melanism: bluish-black, with the normal markings of an intense black. Two specimens of a "black variety" are said to have been found in this country, near Poole.
_Size._--Seldom exceeds a length of 2 feet, and in many districts, in England for instance, does not appear to often reach that size. The largest specimen, from Austria, examined by me, measures 25 inches; one from Hampshire measures 24 inches.
_Distribution._--The range of the Smooth Snake extends over nearly the whole of Europe, as far north as 63° in Norway; it becomes rare and more local in the south, being absent from part of Spain and the islands of the Mediterranean, with the exception of Sardinia. It is common in the hilly parts of Belgium, Northern and Central France, Germany, and Austria. In Sweden it appears to be restricted to the oak region. In Great Britain it has been found in four counties in the South of England: Surrey, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and Berkshire, in some parts of which it is less uncommon than usually supposed. Its reported occurrence in Dumfriesshire is the result of an error; the snake figured as _Coluber dumfriesiensis_ represents an American species. In a very interesting article written for _Science Gossip_ in 1888, Mr. A. L. Beldy says that about 1868, when Bournemouth was but a very small village, surrounded by large expanses of moorland, _Coronella austriaca_ was extraordinarily abundant, and during a hot summer examples were to be seen literally in scores and great numbers were killed. Since then, however, their numbers have gradually decreased. About 1880 the snake was occasionally found near Wellington College, Berks, and as many as five were captured by one person in the course of one year; it is believed to be now extinct in that neighbourhood. From South-Eastern Europe the range of this species extends to South-Western Asia. The ascertained altitudinal range is 4,000 feet in the Alps, 6,000 feet in Bosnia, and 6,500 feet in the Caucasus.