274 THE VIVARIUM. 
earliest recorded captures of the reptile in England. Five years 
later another specimen was taken at Bournemouth, and forwarded 
by Lord Arthur Russell to the British Museum. This was also a 
male. 
Mr. Bartlett, the well-known Superintendent of the Zoological 
Gardens, London, once wrote in the Intellectual Observer that, 
‘‘It was on the morning of the 24th August, 1862, I saw for the 
first time one of these animals, Mr. Fenton having stopped me as 
I was driving along the road in the Regent’s Park, and taking 
from his pocket what I then thought was a Viper, asked me if I 
would accept it for the Zoological Gardens.’? About this time, 
the late Mr. Frank Buckland claimed, in the Feld, the Smooth 
Snake as a native of Great Britain. Now there is no doubt 
whatever concerning the creature’s right to be classed among the 
British fauna. Several specimens are taken every summer in 
Hampshire and the neighbouring counties. I have had no difficulty 
for some years past in procuring English Smooth Snakes from a 
naturalist living in Bournemouth. The price is 5s. each. 
Kuropean representatives of this species can generally, during 
summer, be bought in London of a certain dealer, for even a 
lower sum than that just quoted. 
Like the common viper (Pelvas berus) the C. levis brings forth its 
young alive. One Smooth Snake, I believe, produced six little ones 
at the Feld office, then at 346, Strand. Of these, Mr. Frank Buck- 
land wrote the following very interesting account (see the eld, 
October, 1862): ‘* The old mother Snake is coiled up in a graceful 
combination of circles, her little family are nestled together on 
her back; they have twisted their tiny bodies together into a 
shape somewhat resembling a double figure of eight, and there 
they lie basking at their ease in the mid-day sun. The old 
mother is vibrating her forked tongue at me; the little ones are 
imitating their mother’s action, and are vibrating their tiny 
tongues also. The mamma’s head is most beautifully iridescent. 
in the sun, and her babies are in this respect nearly as pretty as 
their mother. They are about 5in. long, about as thick as asmall 
goose-quill, and smoother than the finest velvet. Their skins are 
of a brownish black colour, and marked like their mother’s, only 
that these markings are not yet well developed. The scales on 
