APRIL DAYS 67 



the characteristics of a certain snake which seemed 

 to concentrate in itself all the pleasantest features 

 of the species. This was a male not two feet long, 

 captured on a very dry bank, which may have 

 accounted for its thinness and for its subsequent 

 tameness when well fed in a cage, but, in any 

 event, he was the most docile snake I ever had. 

 His general hue was a deep glossy green, thickly 

 studded with black ; the ring on his neck bright 

 orange ; and in the centre of the back, in a certain 

 black spot, was the mark of an old wound, long 

 since healed. His tameness was such that he 

 would remain coiled around the hand while a book 

 was read. From the same perch he would capture 

 his dinner (a newt or a fish) in a vessel of water. 

 Quite comfortably would he coil around the neck. 

 But, after awhile, he lost appetite, and was set free, 

 without hope of recapture. Some nine months 

 later, at a spot more than a half-mile distant from 

 the place of liberation, J nearly trod on a much 

 larger snake, which was lying coiled and asleep. 

 This one was of a deep mahogany hue, but the 

 aspect of the black marks on the head seemed 

 familiar. Shortly afterwards the new arrival cast 



