SCOTLAND. 355 



wriggling and was dead ! The good people of lona 

 were surely not to blame if, discarding the suggestion 

 that the reptile had died from exhaustion after its 

 long swim, they rather attributed its sudden death 

 to St Columba's blessing of their island, which for 

 ever rendered its soil inimical to any poisonous 

 creature that ventured to invade it. — I am, &c., 

 Alexander Stewart, LL.D. 



An excellent account of the "Eeptiles and Batrach- 

 ians of the Edinburgh District" was read on March 

 21, 1894, by Mr Wm. Evans, F.E.S.K, before the 

 Eoyal Physical Society of Edinburgh. The author 

 has sent me this paper with his kind permission to 

 quote it, and accordingly I have made the following 

 extracts from it, and from some further notes he has 

 added since then : — 



" Tropidonotus natrix {Ringed Snake). — Several 

 authors refer to this species as an inhabitant of Scot- 

 land, but their statements are for the most part of 

 a very general character ; and, so far as I can dis- 

 cover, no instance of the actual capture of a specimen 

 in a wild state is on record." [Then follow quotations 

 from other writers.] " After carefully considering the 

 above evidence, I have come to the conclusion that, 

 although probably at one time a native of the Low- 

 lands of Scotland (including the Lothians), the ringed 

 snake does not now exist there as an indigenous 

 animal. As an escape, or an introduced species, it 



