SNAKES 145 



feet. In the young the pale brown or yellowish ground 

 colour is ornamented with regular H-shaped black mark- 

 ings along the middle of the back, these disappearing with 

 age, being replaced by a pair of brown stripes which extend 

 along the back. This snake, which is unusually bad- 

 tempered and bold, is common in the vineyards of the 

 Mediterranean parts of France, while in the Spanish 

 Peninsula it most often frequents forest districts. The 

 eggs, about eight in number, are very large, measuring 

 about two inches by two-thirds of an inch. 



In the Striped Snake, Coluber tceniurus^ a ground snake 

 which is found locally all over China and the Eastern 

 Himalayas to the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo, 

 the head and upper parts are grey-brown above, while a 

 dark stripe runs along each side of the belly and the tail. 

 In the Malay Peninsula, however, where it is found in 

 some of the limestone caves, living in complete darkness, 

 feeding on bats, it is very pale yellow in colour, harmonizing 

 most perfectly with the colour of its surroundings, even 

 the dark band along the tail, which is greyish, resembling 

 a crack or ridge, such as is seen on the walls. Upon the 

 dark mud of the ground the snake is conspicuous, but when 

 lying on a ledge or reared erect along a wall of the cave, 

 it is very easily overlooked, and no colouring could be more 

 suited to its surroundings. 



The Fox Snake, Coluber vulpinus, which inhabits the 

 United States east of the Rocky Mountains, derives its 

 name from the fact that freshly captured individuals eject 

 from their anal glands a pungent secretion, the odour of 

 which has been compared to that which impregnates the 

 cage of a captive fox. The light brown ground colour of 



