Snakes. 335 



fishing at a loch about two and a half miles on the 

 east side of the town. So, to save time, I got a boy 

 to take me to the loch. Before we got well away from 

 the railway station he added other two to our staff, 

 one about his own age and the other a year or two 

 younger. Although there was no need for this addi- 

 tion, so far as my work was concerned, yet, as they 

 seemed happy in each other's company, and the new 

 comers fond-like to join the adventure, I saw little 

 reason to object, further than that the group might be 

 somewhat unwelcome to proprietors in forcing their 

 way over fences and ditches. 



"Finding that there was not much likelihood of 

 any obstruction being offered, we marched along 

 agreeably. The road lay along the side of a thickly 

 grown plantation. The conversation soon turned upon 

 a theme congenial to boys, birds and bird-nesting. 

 They soon became full of the wonderful. All three 

 had a fair share of youthful imaginativeness and were 

 primed with tales of adventure and the miraculous. 

 The number of the nests was wonderful, and the 

 names that they gave to the birds were mostly 

 unknown to me. 



" Serpents came to be discussed. They all agreed 

 that there were lots of them in that wood. 



" One of the boys had seen them often on the trees, 

 twined round the branches, beautifully striped with 

 green and yellow, ready to spring at their prey. 



" Another of the boys said that he had been nearly 

 stung by one of them. He had gone up a tree to get 

 a bird's nest that was nearly at the top. On looking 

 over the edge of the nest, there was a serpent lying 



