33 o LAKES AND STREAMS 



When driven from its lair, it will make use of any covert which may be at hand. 

 During the day it hunts for prey within a somewhat limited space, unless un- 

 favourable circumstances necessitate a more distant search. Even in the sea it is a 

 steady and persevering swimmer, and has been found far out of sight of land ; but 

 it swims so slowly that it can be followed at a walk. In swimming it usually 

 keeps close to the surface, with head held erect well above the water, but at times 

 it glides along midway between the surface and the bottom. This snake seldom 

 climbs, although it will occasionally ascend a bush or branching tree either to sun 

 itself or hunt for tree-frogs. Unlike the viper, the ringed snake when surprised 

 does not assume the defensive, but seeks safety in flight ; and when overtaken and 

 seized seldom attempts to bite its captor. It will, however, innate its body and hiss 

 loudly, by which means, as well as by violent contortions of its body, it sometimes 

 so alarms timid persons as to effect its escape. Towards birds-of-prey its behaviour 

 clearly shows that it does not understand how to bite properly, rushing on 

 them with loud hisses b\it often missing when it strikes. When frightened 

 it falls into a kind of fit, and becomes rigid ; and many an enemy is kept off 

 by its unpleasant odour. This disagreeable smell is less noticeable when a snake 

 becomes reconciled to captivity ; and the oftener it is touched the more quickly 

 will the smell disappear, the exhalation being probably due to fright, and being 

 scarcely noticeable when the snake becomes tame. Having once learnt to know 

 its keeper and take food from his hand, it may be taught to eat fish, either whole 

 or cut in slices, and after a time will learn to consume raw beef cut into long 

 strips. The proper food of the ringed snake is however frogs, the common species 

 being captured almost exclusively in the spring when they come to the water for 

 the purpose of pairing, although brown frogs are taken during the whole summer. 

 Although this species does not like the green frogs which live in ponds, it will 

 eagerly devour the tadpoles of all kinds of frogs and toads, which it catches under 

 water, swimming about after them with its mouth wide open. In the same way it 

 catches all kinds of small fish, for which it watches coiled round a post or reed, 

 or lying on a stone so as to be able to strike as they pass and devour them on 

 dry land. The food of the young consists of small fish, newts, and frog-spawn : 

 full-grown snakes will, however, occasionally eat salamanders — w r hen occasion 

 offers, even the spotted salamander — as well as frogs and toads, although toads, as 

 a rule, do not often come in their way, owing to their nocturnal habits, while their 

 broad, flat, thick-skinned bodies are not easily swallowed. When hungry, a snake 

 will devour from three to five large frogs, or several dozen of the small ones or 

 tadpoles, one after the other; before eating its prey it turns it round, so as to 

 take it in head-foremost, fish and frogs not being easily swallowed in any other 

 way. The ringed snake does not appear to eat lizards, mice, or snails, and when 

 the remains of beetles are found in its stomach, these beetles have been swallowed 

 by the frogs it has eaten. 



In October or November this snake takes up its abode, often with several of 

 its kind, in manure-heaps, and other suitable situations, to sleep during the winter. 

 At the earliest it leaves its sleeping-place about the middle of March, but gem rally 

 in April, in order to sun itself for a few weeks, and then to begin its ordinary 

 summer life. The season for pairing lasts from the middle of May to the end of 



