ENGLISH SNAKES 153 



clergyman for information, as he was If the reader will follow me in imagin- 



a keen student of wild life. I found ation on one or two snake-hunting 



in him an excellent ornithologist, but expeditions, he will perhaps gain a 



on inquiring about the local reptiles better impression of the snake life of 



he told me he had seen very few in our country, than by a formal descrip- 



the immediate neighbourhood during tion. 



the forty years he had lived there, It is the last week in April, and 



and none at all just round his own already in mid-Dorset the warmth is 



house. He was considerably aston- quite sufficient to have attracted the 



ished when, within a few days, I caught snakes from their winter quarters, 



two large adders in his own garden, from the old quarries, heaps of stone, 



which was quite close to a large wood, rabbit holes, and other sheltered spots 



and very interested when on uplift- in which the severe winter weather 



ing a flat tombstone in his village has been passed. The animal func- 



churchyard, we discovered a flourish- tions of respiration and circulation 



ing colony of slow-worms or blind- have gradually regained activity as the 



worms. The truth was simply that days have become warmer, until now 



he had never looked for the snakes, such a temperature has been reached 



and they always kept carefully out of as induces the reptile to seek the outer 



his way. It is astonishing how diffi- world once more and commence a 



cult it is to see an adder which is lying search for food. The further south 



motionless amongst a mass of dead one goes the earlier will this season of 



leaves or bracken, or a slow- worm curled renewed activity set in, and by the 



up in grass. In both cases the pro- end of April in an ordinary year we 



tective colouration effectually screens shall find the snakes in full enjoyment 



the reptile from observation, until it of the warm sun. 



moves, and in the case of the slow- Driving some miles from Sherborne, 



worm one may pass within a yard of we cross the site of the once extensive 



the creature and it will lie absolutely forest of Blackmore, and find ourselves 



still. Frequently the first indication on a chalky soil which is frequently 



of the immediate presence of an adder found to be favoured by adders, and 



is the long-drawn-out hissing which making our headquarters in a hamlet 



warns one to stop and look carefully nestling in a sequestered vale, we pro- 



where one is about to tread. ceed to make inquiries from the local 



12 



