338 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



hedge is frequented by snakes by a peculiar smell : 

 it is certain that if one is killed, especially if worried 

 by a dog, there is an unpleasant odour. That they 

 lie torpid during the winter is generally understood ; 

 but though I have kept an eye on the grubbing of 

 many hedges for the purpose of observing what was 

 found, I never saw a snake disturbed from his winter 

 sleep. But that may be accounted for by their tak- 

 ing alarm at the jar and vibration of the earth under 

 the strokes of the axe at the tough roots of thorn 

 stoles and ash, and so getting away. Besides which 

 it is likely enough that these particular hedges may 

 not have been favourite localities with them. They 

 are said to eat mice, and to enter dairies sometimes 

 for the milk spilt on the flagstones of the floor.* They 

 may often be found in the furrows in the meadows, 

 which act as surface drains and are damp. 



Frogs have some power of climbing. I have found 



* An extraordinary instance of this has been very kindly com- 

 municated to me by the writer of the following letter : 



" KINGSTON VICARAGE, WAREHAM, DORSET, 



" October 27, 1878. 



" DEAR SIR, Apropos of your reference to the notion that snakes 

 drink milk, I think it may interest you to hear of a curious instance 

 of this which occurred near here about three months ago. At 

 Kingswood, the home farm of Rempston (Mr. J. H. Calcraft's place, 

 near Corfe Castle), the dairyman noticed that something seemed to 

 enter the dairy through a hole in the wall and take the milk. Think- 

 ing it was a mouse or rat, he set a common gin at the hole, and 

 caught a snake every day until he had caught seventeen ! Mr. 

 Calcraft would corroborate this. My informant is Mr. Bankes, 

 rector of Corfe Castle, who heard it from the dairyman himself. 

 Faithfully yours, S. C. SPENCER SMITH." 



