SOUTH WALES PROVINCE. 307 



from the effect of the bite. The doer after beins 

 bitten, gets very shaky for a time, and likes to mope 

 by himself in an out - of - the - way place until he 

 gets better, in a week or nine days." — T. Eees, 

 Llantrisant. 



" The marshy spots around Llantrisant are famous 

 for snakes. I do not think that the coal, limestone, 

 or ironstone measures or the localities of submercjed 

 forests have anything at all to do with snakes and 

 vipers. 



" Snakes like wet ground and adders like a dry 

 soil. The smooth snake has not been found in 

 Glamorgan. 



" The food of the common or ring snake consists 

 mainly of frogs, and snakes are found most numerous 

 in wet meadows and marshes or in the neiijhbourhood 

 of water, where they can easily get a supply of their 

 favourite food. They take to the water readily, and 

 I have frequently seen them swimming in the dykes 

 on the Grangetown Moors, where they used to exist in 

 considerable numbers. They dwe well, and can stay 

 under water for ten minutes or more, and catch and 

 devour water-newts, of which they are very fond. 



" Two snakes of this species, which I kept in 

 confinement for about three years, were exhibited, 

 amongst others, in my vivarium at the Cardiff Ex- 

 hibition of 1881. They measured after death 4 feet 

 01 inch and 4 feet 2 inches respectively. The 

 longest I caught when sunning herself on a manure- 



