828 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



colour, and immediately behind these are two broad cross spots of black, or they may be confluent. 

 Two rows of small black spots are arranged alternately down the back, and there are larger ones at the 

 sides, all of which vary in size and closeness. The under part is of a pale blue, dull in colour, or it 

 may be of a lead tint marked with black. It is therefoi'e a pretty slim Snake, which may attain to 

 the length of three or four feet. It has a large mouth, and the gape is of the length of the head, 

 and slightly curved, rising behind. The tongue is long, very flexible, and forked to about one-third 

 of its length. The teeth are small, curved backwards, and arranged, as is usual in the group to which 

 this genus belongs, in two series on each side of the jaw above and below. 



COMMON OR RINGED SNAKE. 



They like the warm, sunny banks and heaths where the grass is high, near a pond, and bask by 

 the hour together. They slide down a crack, or move rapidly through the underwood, on an alarm. 

 In the water they are very active, and chase frogs and catch small fish ; out of that element they are 

 not very particular in their food, and they will strike and swallow young birds, birds' eggs, mice, 

 lizards, and frogs. The female is larger than the "male, and she is oviparous, laying eggs a con- 

 siderable time before the young ones are hatched. They are deposited in a warm place, and are 

 from sixteen to twenty in number, being connected together by a glutinous substance. Towards 

 the end of autumn, or earlier, they resort to some sequestered and sheltered place, as in the 

 hollow roots of trees or under hedges and brushwood, coil up in company with others, and sleep 

 during the winter, hibernating thus until the warmth of spring is pronounced enough. Mr. Bell, 

 in his work on " British Reptiles," says that the Common Snake is easily tamed, and may be 

 made to distinguish the people who caress and feed it 



