160 



The second Snake is our common Grass-snake (Tropidonotus matrix), by som« 

 authors called Coluber natrix, and by others Natrix torquata. The marks of 

 distinction by which this Snake may be known from the Viper I have ab-eady 

 pointed out. On our very pleasant excursion to the mountain district of Pen- 

 wyllt (or Head of the Wind) a very large and fine specimen of this Snake was 

 also picked up. 



The general outward appearance of our common English Grass-snake is 

 I think I may say, coarser, of a less elegant shape, and of a duller eoloiir than 

 the Viper, and, I think I may say, too, as a general rule, that its average size is 

 larger than that of the Viper, although I am quite aware that large Vipers are 

 occasionally met with. 



The Grass-snake, we all know, is usually met with upon our mossy banks 

 and hedge-rows, and therefore is an evidently land animal, and yet all those wh» 

 are acquainted with the habits of the Snake are perfectly well aware that it is a 

 lover of water and a good swimmer also, and that even sea-water does not seem 

 to be disagreeable to it ; for it is commonly asserted by those who live on the 

 shores of the Menai Straits, in North Wales, that Snakes are not unfre- 

 quently seen swimming across between Carnarvonshire and Anglesea. It ia 

 well known, too, — and I remember an instance of it myself, — that in the roughs 

 of old quarries frequented by Snakes, where there are water-pits, a Snake 

 when distm-bed wiU frequently make direct for the water, and, if afraid to cross 

 it from persons standing round, that it will not only dive to the bottom, but 

 remain there for a very considerable time, and apparently without any sort of 

 inconvenience to itself. 



I wish some of our more scientific members would explain to us the 

 formation of the respiratory organs of these animals, which enables them to 

 live in either air or water and 'appear to be at home in either. They don't 

 belong to the order Amphibi<e, and yet there ia an ampllibious nature about 

 them like frogs, they will live for hours in the water — long after they have 

 lost their fish-Uke organs. 



The common Grass or Ringed Snake lays from 14 to 16 eggs connected 

 together in a string, though, as far as my own observation goes, I should say it 

 lays separate eggs, for 1 have found, on two occasions, a single egg laid upon small 

 dry sticks at the bottom of an old hedge. The eggs are covered by a sort of 

 whitish-brown membrane, and through which, in those I found, the twisted up 

 young snake was distinctly visible. They had been left to be hatched by the 

 heat of the sun in the same manner that a great many of the eggs of other 

 reptiles are. 



The principal food of Snakes and Vipers is frogs, and it woiild be interest- 

 ing to know (if any member can tell us) whether either of these reptiles capture 

 frogs in water as well as on land. 



