308 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



heap near the Llanishen Viaduct, and the other in a 

 similar position not far from the Tan Yard on Penarth 

 Road. They were both females. 



" Our snakes and adders, in common with others, 

 change their skins at more or less frequent intervals, 

 but not, as is often stated, at regular periods, or once 

 a-year, but sometimes as often as four or five times 

 a-year, according to circumstances. In this ' slough- 

 ing ' process the skin begins to peel around the edges 

 of the mouth, the old skin is thrust back over the 

 head, and the snake crawls out, leaving its old coat 

 turned inside out. I have frequently seen these 

 ' sloughs ' collected and worn by men in the harvest- 

 fields inside their hats as a specific against headache. 

 The colours and markings are very bright and distinct 

 after a change of skin. 



" Adders appear to me to differ in colour somewhat, 

 according to the soil upon which they are found. 

 Many of those caught at Leek with on the Lias lime- 

 stone are very light-coloured, especially after a recent 

 ' sloughing,' and I have noticed a distinct reddish 

 tin^e to the adders which live about the old iron- 

 mines at Little Garth. 



" I have kept a considerable number of snakes and 

 adders alive in my vivarium during the past twenty 

 years. Ring snakes are interesting, and rather tract- 

 able in confinement, but vipers are utterly untamable. 



" As to the adder swallowing its young when danger 

 threatens them, we must still consider this as ' not 



