266 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



a bushel ' were found at Alverstone, and after a gun 

 had been discharged into the heap, seventeen heads 

 were counted. 



" Tropiflonotiis natrix or Ring Snake. — Universally 

 distributed, but said to be less common in the Isle 

 of Wight than the viper. 



" Coronella austriaca or Smooth Snake. — Locally dis- 

 tributed: found in the New Forest and in the north-east 

 of the county. Absent from the island. One was caught 

 in my garden on July 6, 1894. Mr G. B. Corbin, of 

 Eingwood, reported one from his neighbourhood in 

 August 1897. One was taken in August 1883 on 

 the hills between Yately and Camberley, on the 

 borders of Hants and Surrey. Its usual colour is 

 silvery-grey." — Eev. J. E. Kelsall, Milton, Lymington 

 (Proceedings of Hampshire Field Club, vol. iii., Part 

 III., 1898). 



" In the area worked by the Portsmouth and Gos- 

 port Nat. Sci. Soc. (which extends from the Tichfield 

 river on the west northward until it reaches Wick- 

 ham, thence eastward following the boundary of the 

 Fareham district down to Langstone Harbour, and 

 round the shore to the Tichfield river again) the 

 adder is the most common snake found. In this 

 area the average lemrth is from 18 to 20 inches, but 

 one measuring 22 inches was taken at Stokes Bay 

 in iVpril 1882. Near the seashore there is much 

 common land covered with gorse and bracken, whilst 

 in the northern part of the district there are exten- 



