130 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



produced in a string and stick to one another, forming 

 an irregular bunch, hatching a couple of months later. 

 As the eggs are deposited under a mass of decomposing 

 leaves, or in manure heaps, those laid in captivity should 

 be placed under similar surroundings and kept at a high 

 temperature. It is by no means easy to hatch the eggs 

 under artificial conditions, for, unless kept moderately 

 damp and at a uniform temperature of about 90°, they 

 soon shrivel up and die. At birth the young snakes, 

 measuring only about eight inches in length, are remarkably 

 beautiful creatures, their light collar and their dark mark- 

 ings being very sharply defined. The snout of the newly 

 born animals terminates, as in most snakes, in a minute, flat 

 " egg tooth," which is shed on the second day after birth. 

 My very young specimens were fed chiefly on the young 

 of the common frog, each snake consuming three or four of 

 these a week ; fish, of which the adults are fond, were not 

 accepted, which may be explained by the fact that the 

 young, in all probability, never enter water. The Grass 

 Snake hibernates during the winter months in holes in 

 walls, or in manure heaps, not emerging again, in this 

 country, until the beginning of April. 



Although this snake does not often reach a length of 

 four feet in the British Isles, giants measuring over six 

 feet in length are known from Southern Europe. I have 

 seen such specimens from Sardinia in the Florence Museum, 

 the body being quite five inches in circumference. 



The Tessellated Snake, T. tessellatus, has also a wide 

 distribution in Central and Southern Europe, and in 

 South-Western Asia. It may be easily distinguished from 

 the Grass Snake by a narrower head, and by the eyes and 



