54 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



me from the way in which it hitched on to anything, 

 and remained clinging until shaken off'. When one 

 considers also the fact that it is a common snake 

 in Malta, one may possibly have an explanation of 

 the ' viper ' (Acts xxviii. 3) which came out of the 

 firewood and fastened itself on to the hand of Paul 

 after the shipwreck. It is wonderful the way in 

 which the most innocuous reptiles are described with 

 the Homeric epithet of a venomous snake." 



In the ' Surrey Magazine ' of May, June, and July 

 1899, Mr Bryan Hook contributed three articles on 

 the reptiles of that county. He is the first to record 

 the smooth snake there, and the following quotation is 

 from the paper in the June number of the county 

 magazine : — 



"The smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) — perhaps 

 the most interesting of the Surrey reptiles — is one 

 which, I am told upon the best authority, I am the 

 first to record as occurring in this county. 



" In general colour and appearance it so nearly 

 resembles the unpopular viper that doubtless it is 

 usually greeted with the same treatment ; at any rate, 

 such was the lot of the first one that came under my 

 notice, the stock of my gun ending its career in a tuft 

 of heather in which it had taken refuge. Had it been 

 in the open I should perhaps have recognised it, and 

 then I should not have had the mortification of 

 knowing that I had destroyed a rare and harmless 

 reptile. 



