334 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



neck, while the rest of the body slides down the slope. 

 If it happens to be a steep-sided ditch, he often loses 

 his balance, and rolls to the bottom ; and that is what 

 has been mistaken for leaping. As he rises up the 

 mound he follows a zigzag course, and presently enters 

 some small hole or a cavity in a decaying stole. After 

 creeping in some distance he often meets with an ob- 

 struction, and has to remain half in and half out till 

 he can force his way. He usually takes possession of 

 a mouse-hole, and does not seem to be able to enlarge 

 it for additional convenience. If you put your stick 

 on his head as he slips through the grass, his body rolls 

 and twists, and almost ties itself in a knot. 



I have never been able to find a snake in the actual 

 process of divesting his body of the old skin, but have 

 several times disturbed them from a bunch of grass 

 and found the slough in it. There was an old wall, 

 very low and somewhat ruinous, much overgrown With 

 barley-like grasses, where I found a slough several 

 times in succession, as if it had been a favourite resort 

 for the purpose. The slough is a pale colour; there 

 is no trace on it of the snake's natural hue, and it has 

 when fresh an appearance as if varnished meaning 

 not the brown colour of varnish, but the smoothness. 

 A thin transparent film represents the eyes, so that 

 the country folk say the snake skins his own eyes. 



A forked stick is the best thing to catch a snake 

 with : the fork pins the head to the ground without 

 doing any injury. If held up by the tail that is the 

 way the country lads carry them the snake will not 



