OUSE PROVINCE. 285 



Cambridgeshire. 



I have been unable to sret much information regard- 

 ing the Ophidia in this county ; but my friend Dr W. 

 S. Syme, of Gamlingay, says it is for a very good 

 reason — viz., that the reptiles are not there. He 

 tells me that both adders and ring snakes are quite 

 unknown in that part of Cambridgeshire, though 

 both species are found in the eastern or Fen dis- 

 trict. In the neighbourhood of Gamlingay he has 

 not heard of any one seeing either species during 

 the last twenty years. — Author. 



" I once saw a ring snake at Wicken Fen which 

 was quite 36 if not 40 inches in length, the longest 

 I have ever observed." — Frank Bouskell, F.E.S., 

 F.Pt.H.S., Market Bosworth. 



" The ring snake is the most common in this county, 

 sometimes growing to a length of 4 feet. The adder 

 is very rarely seen." — Albert H. Waters, B.A. (Hon. 

 Sec. Pract. Nat. Hist. Soc.) 



Bedfordshire. 



" The adder is the most common, and this species is 

 rare and local, a few being taken from time to time* on 

 Kowney Warren, near ShefFord, and occasionally else- 

 where. Snakes are too rare in the county to give an 

 estimate of their average lengths, and I have but one 

 or two records of the ring snake being taken at all. 



