46 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
have the care of them. At a sign from their keeper, they will twist 
themselves round his fingers, arms, and neck, insinuate their heads 
between his lips to drink his saliva, and to hide and warm them- 
selves under his clothes. In their wild state the adult Ringed Snake 
lives in the fields; and, when full-grown, shows great irritation if 
attacked. When exasperated, they open their mouths, erect them- 
_ selves with great activity, and even bite the hand which attempts to 
lay hold of them. 
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Fig. 11. —Ringed Snake, 
[This Ringed Snake is the Watrex torquatus of Ray. The female 
is larger than the male. Its food consists principally of frogs, which 
are generally seized by the leg and swallowed alive. 
When the skin has just been cast, the Ringed Snake presents 
- beautiful markings when seen swimming across some clear running 
stream, its head and neck raised above the limpid water and the sun 
shining on its bright enamelled back. It has been supposed that this 
Snake casts its skin at fixed intervals ; this, Mr. Bell considers to be 
a mistake. He has always found that this depended on the tem- 
| perature of the atmosphere and on their state of health. “TI have 
known the skin thrown off,” he adds, “four or five times during the 
year. It is always thrown off by reversing it, so that the transparent 
