114 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



C. — The snake becomes torpid during winter, I believe ? 



F. — Yes : it conceals itself in the fall, in some conve- 

 nient spot, such as under logs, often in heaps of stones, and 

 sometimes, I have reason to think, in the earth ; for in 

 ploughing late in the autumn, I once turned up a chequered 

 snake : it was inert and dull, but not torpid. 



C. — At what period of the year does it cast its skin ? 



F, — I believe that is the first operation performed, after 

 its revivification in spring, and before it leaves its winter 

 concealment. An intelligent neighbour informed me that 

 once in turning over a heap of stones early in spring, before 

 the snow had all disappeared, he discovered a snake in the 

 very act of sloughing its skin ; the skin was stripped off from 

 the head to about the middle of the body ; the displaced part 

 lay around it in close folds or wrinkles : even the eyes were 

 skinned. If I recollect aright, in Bingley's Animal Biogra- 

 phy it is intimated that the snake crawls among the stalks 

 of plants, in order that the skin may be rubbed off by fric- 

 tion, and that it is turned inside out, as we draw off a stock- 

 ing. My neighbour's account appears far more probable : 

 besides, it is supported by analogy ; for it is exactly the 

 mode in which all caterpillars slough their skins, as I have 

 many times witnessed. The food of the snake is frogs, 

 toads, lizards, and probably insects. I once killed a snake 

 which I found in the field, (supposing then that it was 

 poisonous,) by dashing it against the ground : and some- 

 thing protruded, which I supposed was its bowels, but on 

 examination, I found it to be the pretty olive-spotted frog, 

 with an orange-coloured belly {Rana Halecina ?) : it, too, 

 was torn, but whether this was done by the snake, or by the 

 shock against the ground, I don't know ; I suspect the latter, 

 and that it had been swallowed whole, and probably alive. 

 A friend of mine informed me that he once saw a snake of 

 unusually large size, and determined to kill and open it ; 



