Zoology, 387 



catching at and fracturing the head. During the progress of 

 these acts, she, every few seconds, snorted, and shook off the 

 froth, of which she seemed sedulously careful to free herself, 

 and barked at the conquered shake. The dog was a most 

 determined vermin-killer, and in rats, &c., quite an accom- 

 plished one ; but snakes did not often come in her way. — 

 J,D, 



Snakes taking the Water. • — I once saw a snake in a broad 

 ditch which had been shortly previous " scoured out," as the 

 phrase is, and which was, therefore, devoid of the usual aquatic 

 plants, save the Z/cmnae, which floated on the water's surface. 

 As Coluber iVatrix waddled along in the water, his golden 

 head and arched neck looked prettily, and were none the less. 

 obvious for the green surface supplied by the above named 

 mantling Lemnae, Does the snake always bolt its food, that 

 is, swallow it whole ? I think, not always : for I remember 

 once, in company with a party of haymakers, coming to a 

 sloping ditch side, where a snake lay stretched out, with its 

 head lowest, and near the water in the bottom of the ditch, 

 where it was eating a water newt. One of the haymakers 

 seized the snake by its tail, and held it so that it hung per- 

 pendicularly from his hand. Hereupon the newt fell upon 

 the grass ; and when the man had held the snake as long as 

 he pleased, he let it down ; when it dashed through the w^ater 

 in the ditch to the opposite side, and slid off among the grass 

 and bushes. Attention was now directed to the newt, whose 

 hinder portion had been eaten off; and the part where erosion 

 had ceased displayed thickish blood, of an almost vermilion 

 colour : appearing, doubtless, more striking from its contrast 

 with the dark skin of the newt. — J. D. 



Zoophytes at Bury St, Edmunds, — The description of a 

 beautiful aquatic animal by Mr. G. Johnston, in the January 

 Number of this Magazine (p. 43.), brings to my recollection a 

 singular phenomenon that 1 observed, in the summer of 1825, 

 in a small canal which passes across the botanic garden at Bury 

 St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Walking with Mr. Hodson, the pro- 

 prietor, round the garden, he directed my attention to the 

 dark blood-red colour of the bottom of the canal, occurring- 

 in patches about the size of a large cabbage leaf. At first I 

 supposed it was occasioned by some species of minute aquatic 

 moss that grew at the bottom of the water. Mr. Hodson de- 

 sired I would strike the earth with my feet : this did not sen- 

 sibly agitate the water, but the red colour at the bottom of 

 the canal gradually though quickly disappeared, without in 

 the least disturbing the mud, or affecting the transparency of* 

 the water. In a few minutes, while we remained quiet, the 



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