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Fig. 39.—Bitis nasicornis. (After Duméril and Bibron.)

(8) B. nasicornis (fig. 39).—Nostrils opening upwards and outwards. Head covered with small strongly keeled scales, smaller on the vertex, 14–16 from one eye to the other; 2 or 3 pairs of compressed, erectile, horn-like shields between the supranasals, usually separated in the middle by 1 or 2 series of small scales; 15–18 supralabials; 4–6 infralabials. Scales on the body in 35–41 rows, strongly keeled; 124–140 ventrals; 16–32 subcaudals.

Colour purple or reddish-brown above, with pale olive or dark brown spots; a vertebral series of brown, black-edged spots, which assume a rhomboidal form; sides of head dark brown, with a triangular light mark in front of the eye, and an oblique light streak from behind the eye to the mouth; belly pale olive, spotted with black or yellow.

Total length, 1,250 millimetres; tail 125.

Habitat: West Africa, from Liberia to the Gaboon.