In some cases, each pair of spots may be united toward the neck area, forming a series of cross-bars over the back.

These four series of spots along the body overlay four parallel, rather shadowy stripes that also run down the back and flanks.

[3] On the top of the head is a dark marking which is often in the shape of a crown, giving rise to the generic name Coronella (which means coronet).

A relatively thick dark stripe extends from each nostril, through the eye, and along the side of the head to a little beyond the neck.

It subdues larger prey by constriction, although unlike true constrictors it does not kill by this method.

Coronella austriaca is found from the south of England through France and the Low Countries to northern Spain and Portugal, Germany, Norway and Sweden (as far north as latitude 63°), Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Sicily (but not in Corsica or Sardinia), the western Balkans and Greece, and European Russia as far north as latitude 57°.

[4] It is absent in Denmark despite the species being found just south of the German border as well as in southern Sweden.