230 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



side of the stone, like the two halves of the axle of a 

 wheelbarrow. The snake was about 15 inches Ions, 

 and was quite fixed in the stone, which was a flint. 

 The reptile was thin in the middle and bigger at both 

 ends on either side of the stone, and those who saw 

 it consider that it must have grown for some time 

 in this extraordinary position. The flint had to be 

 broken in half before the snake could be released. 



I can only account for the reptile being caught in 

 this way by supposing that it attempted to get 

 through the hole in the stone at a time when its 

 stomach was bulging from some food, that it was 

 wedged in firmly where its girth was largest, and 

 being unable to move either forwards or backwards, 

 had so remained fixed. The organs on either side 

 of the point of constriction would soon swell out 

 and render all efforts at escape quite futile. 



Adder with two heads. — The Kev. Canon Bush, 

 Duloe Eectory, Cornwall, has sent me a very interest- 

 ing note on an adder killed in 1853 (or 1854) which 

 had two heads. The adder was brought to him by a 

 labourer, who had found it in a wood in the neigh- 

 bouring parish of St Martin. The reptile was about a 

 foot long, and was shaped like the letter Y, the two 

 limbs of the Y representing the division of the reptile 

 into two heads. My correspondent noticed that each 

 head had independent action, and that when the adder 

 opened one mouth the other mouth did not necessarily 



