SNAKES. 197 



a tree, or under a quickset hedge, where some- 

 times a considerable number spend the cold sea- 

 son, coiled up together in torpidity, until the 

 balmy air of spring warms them into renewed life 

 and activity. Dr. Carpenter mentions an instance 

 which occurred within his own knowledge, in 

 which thirteen hundred Ringed Snakes were 

 found in an old limekiln.* This species does not 

 usually climb, but Mr. Jesse states that it does 

 occasionally ascend into the branches of a tree, 

 probably for the purpose of rifling the nests of 

 birds, on the eggs and young of which it often 

 regales. It is fond of the water, in which it 

 swims with elegance and facility, with the head 

 and neck raised above the surface ; and this is not 

 surprising, when we consider that its favourite 

 food is that expert swimmer and diver, the frog. 

 Mr. Bell, in a very interesting manner, describes 

 the mode in which the hapless victim is seized 

 and swallowed, taking occasion to explain the 

 peculiar mechanism of the jaws in this Order, a 

 structure to which we have already alluded. " I 

 have seen," observes this gentleman, " one of 

 these voracious creatures in pursuit of a frog, 

 which appeared perfectly conscious-^ of its ap- 

 proaching fate, leaping with less and less power 

 as it found its situation more hopeless, and the 

 crisis of its fate approaching, and uttering its 

 peculiar weak cry with more than usual shrillness, 

 until at length it was seized by its pursuer by 

 the hinder leg, and gradually devoured. The 

 manner in which the Snake takes its prey is very 

 curious. If it be a frog, it generally seizes it by 

 the hinder leg, because it is usually taken in 



* « Zoology," i. 569. 



