A Snake in the Grass. 299 



distance he often meets with an ohstruction, and has 

 to remain half in and half out till he can force his 

 way. He usnallj^ takes possession of a mouse-hole, 

 and does not seem to be able to enlarge it for ad- 

 ditional convenience. If 3'ou put your stick on his 

 head as he slips through the grass his body rolls and 

 twists, and almost ties itself in a knot. 



I have never been able to find a snake in the 

 actual process of divesting his body of the old skin, 

 but have several times disturbed them from a bunch 

 of grass and found the slough in it. There was an 

 old wall, very low and somewhat ruinous, much over- 

 grown with barley-like grasses, where I found a 

 slough several times in succession, as if it had been a 

 favorite resort for the purpose. The slough is a pale 

 color — there is no trace on it of the snake's natural 

 hue, and it has when fresh an appearance as if var- 

 nished — me^aning not the brown color of varnish, but 

 the smoothness. A thin transparent film represents 

 the eyes, so that the countr}- folk say the snake skins 

 his own e3-es. 



A forked stick is the best thing to catch a snake 

 with : the fork pins the head to the ground without 

 doing any injury. If held up by the tail — that is the 

 wa}^ the country lads carry them — the snake will not 

 let its head hang down, but holds it up as far as pos- 

 sible : he does not, however, seem able to crawl up 

 himself, so to say ; he is helpless in that position. If 

 he is allowed to touch the arm he immediately coils 

 round it. A snake is sometimes found on the roofs 

 of cottages. The roof in such cases is low, and con- 

 nected by a mass of ivy with the ground, overgrown 

 too with moss and weeds. 



