REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



being their favourite food, but the poisonous 

 snake is nowhere abundant. In some fifteen 

 years of shooting and birds-nesting in North 

 Berkshire I have never seen an adder. More 

 are probably found near Highclere and 

 round Windsor Forest than in any other parts 

 of the county. Above Lambourn, on the 

 north side, are two wild stretches of upland 

 called 'Crow Down' and 'Worm Hill,' 

 where I have seen slow-worms, and even a 

 crow carrying one, but I have never seen an 

 adder, or heard of any person or animal being 

 bitten by one. 



6. Smooth Snake. Coronella l<evis, Lac6p. 



This very interesting and local snake, which 

 is mainly confined to the southern and sandy 

 parts of Dorsetshire, Hampshire and Surrey, 

 is believed to be now extinct in Berkshire, 

 though twenty years ago it was not uncom- 

 mon, near Wellington College. In Mr. G. 

 Leighton's British Serpents (Blackwood and 

 Sons, London) will be found an account of its 

 haunts and habits near Wellington College by 

 Mr. Bevir. Its food consists almost entirely 

 of slow-worms and lizards. 



BATRACHIANS 



ECAUDATA 



7. Common Frog. Rana temporaria, Linn. 



Abundant in all the valleys and especially 

 by the old canal in the Vale of White Horse, 

 where the water is in parts wholly covered 

 with spawn in spring, and in the Kennet 

 Valley, where water meadows are numer- 

 ous. 



8. Common Toad. JBufo vulgaris, Laur. 



Common everywhere, though the natter- 

 jack toad is not found in the county. 



CAUDATA 



9. Great Crested Newt. Molge cristata, Laur. 



A pond species, and not common. A few 

 are found in one of the large ballast holes by 

 the railway line near Steventon, and in some 

 of the ponds in Windsor Great Park. 



10. Common Smooth Newt. Molge vulgaris, 



Linn. 



Common both in ponds and canals, but not 

 in the ponds on the downs or in the chalk 

 streams. 



139 



