134 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



" The reptile does not appear to have been secured, 

 but is ascribed 'presumably to the adder species.' 

 Now, of the three snakes inhabiting this country, one 

 only is venomous (Pelias berus), the 'little viper' of 

 France and the Continent generally. 



" Your correspondents say that the case was first 

 looked upon as one of a bite of an ' ordinary mountain 

 snake.' If by mountain snake is meant the common 

 ringed or grass snake, it would be deeply interesting to 

 know, both as a question of natural history and as a 

 point of possible importance in diagnosis, whether they 

 have ever seen or heard on good authority of this 

 creature biting. 



" It will hiss furiously on the smallest provocation, 

 and its odour when enraged is something appalling ; 

 but though I have handled hundreds, perhaps 

 thousands, of them in the course of my life, I never 

 experienced a bite from one, nor have I ever met with 

 any one whose testimony was otherwise. And I am 

 not acquainted with any other member of the 

 serpent tribe of which the same thing can be said, 

 although I have ' gone in ' for reptiles all my days. — I 

 am, &c, Arthur Stradlixg, Watford." 



My own experience with the ring snake coincides 

 with that of Dr Stradling. Though this species will 

 hiss volubly and open its mouth when caught, I have 

 never known it attempt to bite, even when a finger 

 was offered to it. 



