SEVERN PROVINCE. 289 



of an adult meadow-vole. I have often been bitten by 

 them, but have sustained no harm from their bites. 



" The adder averages 21 inches in the males, 23 

 inches in the females. The biggest I ever had was a 

 giant 26J inches long, measured alive. I turned it 

 out where I found it." — Charles A. Witchell, Chorlton 

 Kings (author of ' Fauna of Gloucestershire '). 

 * 



On January 17, 1888, Mr C. A. Witchell read a 

 paper on the " Keptilia and Batrachia of Gloucester- 

 shire," from which, by his permission, the following 

 extracts are taken : — 



" I have no record of the smooth snake having been 

 seen wild in this county. 



" The ringed snake varies in its ground colour in all 

 shades between warm red-brown and clear light-green, 

 and these different shades correspond with the length 

 of time elapsed since the last shedding of the skin, for 

 the brown snake becomes a green snake when this 

 event takes place. 



" About midsummer the female snake lays her eggs, 

 from 4 to 27 in number, in — if possible — her favourite 

 nest, a manure-heap. I have never been able to hatch 

 out snakes' eggs in a cage. 



" In confinement the snake likes to catch his own 

 dinner, and will seize newts swimming in a vessel of 

 water in his cage. One of my snakes ate 17 newts at 

 a meal; another devoured a gudgeon 6 inches long; 

 and a third, when coiled* round my hand, would catch 



T 



