THE RING SNAKE. 35 



killed hundreds of them. " They were of a light- 

 brown colour, and had a bright yellow band round 

 the neck." With this detailed information of the 

 state of affairs it was not a matter of great difficulty 

 to understand how the plague of snakes had pome 

 about. 



There was no doubt that the obtruding reptiles 

 must be ring snakes, their numbers proved that pretty 

 conclusively, and the specimen sent me by Mr D. P. 



Fig. 6. — Young Ring Snake found in the debris of the wall. 



Thomas, sanitary inspector, settled the point. It was 

 a young ring snake 7\ inches long, with all the char- 

 acteristic markings. It is shown in the illustration 

 above. Mr Thomas also sent me a bunch of the 

 eggs, or rather the egg-membranes, as the young had 

 been hatched out of them, except in one or two, 

 which contained the skeleton of the embryo. 



The interesting problem which presented itself at 

 first was, Where did all these snakes come from, and 



