VARIOUS INCIDENTS EECORDED. 227 



the experiment successful, but the pigs eventually 

 multiplied and provided most excellent sport. 



Mr Edwin Gosling (East Grinstead) tells me of an 

 incident which further illustrates this weakness of 

 pigs for serpents. He once came across a large 

 serpent in Llangwyfan Bog (Wales) asleep on some 

 water-weeds. The reptile was between 5 and 6 feet 

 long, and was evidently a foreign serpent which had 

 escaped from a collection, or been washed ashore from 

 a wreck, or in some other way got out of its natural 

 latitude. He killed the serpent, and on opening it 

 found a large brown rat in the stomach. He left the 

 snake where he killed it, intending to pick it up on 

 his return and have it identified at South Kensing- 

 ton. However, a short time afterwards, on returning 

 from the shore of the bay, he found that a pig had 

 just finished devouring the serpent. — The Author. 



Snakes in trees. — " I once saw a beautiful speci- 

 men of the ring snake, just fresh from casting its 

 slough, coiled up on the branches and leaves of a 

 hazel-bush, about 4 feet from the ground, basking in 

 the sun, and probably on the watch for a small bird. 

 The bright colours of the snake on the background 

 of the green leaves formed a most charming picture. 

 Mr E. Blagg tells me that it took so much strength 

 to pull one of these snakes out of a loose stone wall 

 in which it had taken refuge that he was afraid it 

 might be pulled in two." (The tail, no doubt, was 



