140 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



The Dark Green Snake, which ranges throughout 

 Central and Eastern Europe, and is also found in South- 

 western Asia, lives in hedges or in woods, invariably 

 avoiding damp localities. Although in the wild state it 

 can no doubt withstand a considerable degree of cold, 

 being found in the Alps at an altitude of nearly 4,000 

 feet, in captivity it on the contrary requires for its welfare 

 a higher temperature than any other European snake. 

 Its food varies considerably, consisting of small mammals, 

 birds, lizards, other snakes, frogs and, according to 

 Schreiber, even large grasshoppers. 



Although so commonly kept in confinement, I cannot 

 recall a single instance of its having deposited its eggs under 

 these conditions. 



The Horse-shoe Snake, Zamenis hippocrepis, the total 

 length of which may attain five feet, is a Spanish, Portu- 

 guese, and North African species of, if possible, still fiercer 

 disposition than the Dark Green Snake. It is slower in its 

 movements than other members of the genus, and is, there- 

 fore, much more manageable. Although usually choosing 

 the underground galleries of small mammals as its home, 

 it frequently enters the dwellings of man. The eggs, only 

 about four or five in number, are deposited during the 

 months of July, August, and September, 



The Horse-shoe Snake is most strikingly marked, its 

 yellow or reddish ground colour being relieved with dark 

 brown, black-edged, rhomboidal spots, on each side of 

 which is a series of smaller alternating spots ; these spots, 

 which are occasionally entirely black, often reduce the 

 ground colour to a mere chain or series of X's of yellow 

 colour ; a dark cross-band is present between the eyes, 



