Snakes Fondness for Milk 277 



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 taking 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. 1 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 

 them on the roofs of outhouses which were covered with 

 ivy; they must have got up the ivy. Their toes are, 

 indeed, to a certain degree prehensile, and they can cling 

 with them. They sometimes make a low sound while in 

 the ivy on such roofs ; to my ear it sounds like a hoarse 



1 An extraordinary instance of this has been very kindly communi- 

 cated 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. Thinking 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 in- 

 formant is Mr. Bankes, rector of Corfe Castle, who heard it from the 

 dairyman himself. 



Faithfully yours, 



S. C. SPENCEB SMITH.' 



