THREE COMMON REPTILES 



which quite often appears in gardens and round 

 houses, and is a true snake and no lizard in 

 disguise. It is a very pretty creature, that is, 

 if you are not too prejudiced to be able to 

 see beauty in such a thing as a snake, being 

 handsomely marked with dark patches on 

 fawn-grey ground, which should not be con- 

 fused with the diamond-shaped markings on 

 the adder. The head of the common snake 

 also differs in shape from that of the latter, not 

 being so broad at the base. In the case of the 

 adder the neck appears slimmer and narrower 

 and the head decidedly broader behind. The 

 common or grass snake is a perfectly harm- 

 less creature, never attempting to bite when 

 handled and quite incapable of doing any harm 

 if it did try. Its habit of running its forked 

 black tongue over things that come in its way 

 is trying to nervous people, who, as in the 

 case of the slowworm, nearly always persist in 

 believing that this is a sting. As a matter of 

 fact, there is no snake which stings in the 

 proper meaning of the word, though there are 

 plenty in various parts of the world that can 

 inject poison into a bite, this poison passing 

 down the hollow fangs or teeth when the 

 latter are pressed into a victim. Our common 



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