THE RING SNAKE. 25 



The tongue is very long and forked, and is provided 

 with a muscular sheath, by means of which it can be 

 quickly protruded and withdrawn. The jawbones 

 are very freely movable, allowing of the distension of 

 the throat to the immense extent required to swallow 

 the large articles of diet. On dissection the right 

 lung only is found fully developed, the left being 

 rudimentary. It is obviously more convenient for a 

 long cylindrical animal such as a serpent to have one 

 long tubular lung than two shorter and more bulky 

 ones. This want of symmetry is to be seen in other 

 internal organs, no doubt for a like reason. Thus the 

 right ovary is larger than the left, and is not opposite 

 but anterior to the left one. The windpipe is much 

 elongated. The lack of true eyelids is supplied by the 

 presence of a transparent scale, like a watch-glass, 

 which is shed with the rest of the slough. 



One prominent feature of the ring snake is its 

 habit of emitting a powerful and unpleasant odour 

 when disturbed. A correspondent of mine, who has 

 killed some hundreds of ring snakes, assures me that 

 he can always smell them directly he gets within 

 a few yards of them. The odour is the product of 

 two glands placed just within the anal orifice. So 

 much for the structure of the most common of British 

 serpents. 



The only instance I have ever come across of a 

 ring snake attacking an adder is furnished me by Mr 

 Kees, who says : " One summer's morning at Newpark 



