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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 24
Map 7 seems to be scarce in Breckland. However, unlike the C o m m o n Lizard, it is as likely to be encountered on clay soils as on sandy ones and so is perhaps more evenly distributed in the County than the C o m m o n Lizard. Many of the records refer to specimens found in country churchyards, and these areas of relict grassland seem to be favoured. In many cases the Slow-worm and the C o m m o n Lizard share the same habitat, notably on heathland and railway embankments/cuttings, and can be found in close proximity. Slow-worms occasionally turn up in large unkempt urban gardens and on wasteland. I have never found the species on coastal sand dunes and only once, some 20 years ago at Halesworth, on wet pastureland, and this was fairly close to a railway e m b a n k m e n t , a more usual habitat. Some suitable localities seem to encourage high population densities. Large n u m b e r s were removed a few years ago and re-located f r o m a few acres of rough scrubland in an old orchard off Rigbourne Hill in Beccles, prior to the site being built on. I found well over a dozen on one visit alone, and there is little doubt that there were many more. Adder or Viper (Vipera berus) [Map 8] T h e only poisonous British reptile, the A d d e r has a very wide E u r o p e a n and central Asian distribution. It is widespread in the British Isles but not found in Ireland. In both Suffolk and Norfolk, it seems to be almost exclusively associated with light, sandy soils. T h e prime habitats are heathland or coastal dune systems, or areas adjacent to these. As the distribution map shows, the
Trans. Suffolk
Nat. Soc. 24