48 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



his kind permission to quote it. The 'following 

 copious extracts are from the paper in question : — 



" Most people, I imagine, have been hitherto aware 

 of only one other British serpent besides the adder, 

 and that is the common or ringed snake. A figure 

 and general description, therefore, with a few addi- 

 tional remarks on a now well-established third species 

 of British serpent, may not, perhaps, be uninteresting 

 to our members ; more especially as its British habitat 

 at present appears to be confined to the sandy heath 

 districts of Dorsetshire and the adjoining county of 

 Hampshire. 



"The first undoubted capture of this snake, Coro- 

 nella Icvms or smooth snake, in Ijritain, was in June 

 1853, by Mr Frederick Bond, between Wimborne 

 and Ptingwood, on the borders of Parley Heath. I 

 was present on that occasion entomologising with 

 Mr Bond. We agreed that it was new to us, and, 

 with little doubt, new also to Britain. Mr Bond 

 took the specimen with him to London, fully intend- 

 ing to get it examined by the British Museum ex- 

 perts ; but amid the many distractions of the height 

 of the entomological season it was merely put into 

 spirit and subsequently forgotten, until the record 

 of a specimen received at the British Museum from 

 Bournemouth (where it was found by the Hon. Arthur 

 Ptussell in 1859) appeared in the 'Zoologist,' 1859 

 (p. 6731). On reading this notice Mr Bond im- 

 mediately recognised the species we had met with 



