DO SNAKES DRINKl 83 



Mr. Frank Buckland saw his Coronella drink fre- 

 quently, though she ate nothing ; and as the discovery and 

 captivity of this interesting lady and her brood, born in 

 London in 1862,^ formed the subject of many papers in 

 the scientific journals at the time, one would suppose that 

 they would have been heard of in Germany, where the 

 species {C. Icevis) is well known. 



' Though not to be tempted with food, they are very fond 

 of water,' says Mr. F. Buckland. 



Lenz' experiments are, however, well worth noticing, 

 because subsequent observations have in many instances 

 confirmed this author's conclusions. 



' In confinement,' he says, * snakes are more easily induced 

 to lick up drops sprinkled on grass than to drink from a 

 vessel.' Naturally so. In their native haunts they are not 

 accustomed to pans of water or saucers of milk, but they 

 are accustomed to moisten their tongues on the blades of 

 grass or the leaves of plants which hold the drops of rain 

 or dew. Lenz then mentions some experiments which he 

 himself made with snakes. He placed a ring snake and 

 an adder in an empty box, and kept them there without 

 food for a fortnight, at the end of which period he placed 

 them in a tub containing half an inch of water, and left 

 them there for half an hour. He then killed them both, 

 and on dissection found no water inside of them. This 

 led him to the conclusion that they had not drank at all ; 

 but, in the first place, had they occupied the whole half- 

 hour in lapping with their thread-like tongue, it may be 

 doubted whether any appreciable quantit)- could be imbibed 



^ Sec /vV/t/ newspaper, September and October 1S62. London. 



