Reptiles. 9735 



I bad scarcely gone ten yards further when a moderately-sized common 

 ringed snake (C. natrix) glided across ray path, not very fast, how- 

 ever, and the reason was soon apparent — the snake looked high- 

 shouldered ; it had evidentl}' just dined, and its dinner was only about 

 four inches from its head. Knowing how easily snakes disgorge their 

 prey, I just stopped it with my stick, and in half a second up came a 

 fair-sized toad. Thus lightened of its burden the snake quickly dis- 

 appeared ; the toad also soon regained its presence of mind, sat up, 

 held its head knowingly on one side, gave me a parting wink and 

 crawled away. The usual diet of the ringed snake is the frog, but 

 I have known them eat toads when kept in confinement, and the 

 present case proves that they occasionally eat them in a state of 

 nature. 



My adventures were not yet over, for no sooner had I passed the 

 marshy land and gained the sandy heath than I saw what I at first 

 took to be a small dark-coloured adder basking on the short grass, 

 and even after a second good look at it could not help thinking that it 

 must be an adder ; accordingly I gave it a slight blow with my stick, 

 then held it down and carefully seized it immediately behind the 

 head ; it at once most obligingly opened its mouth, and I took out my 

 pen-knife to raise the poison-fangs ; strange to say, however, there was 

 no poison-fang to raise, and the thought flashed through my mind, 

 "This, then, is one of the new snakes ;" and the closer I examined it 

 the more pleased I felt, and more fully convinced that my conjecture 

 was correct. 



I have mentioned all these circumstances to show that, although 

 each snake has its favourite haunt, yet in some localities examples of 

 all three of our British Colubridae may be caught within a radius of 

 fifty yards. Of course I was now anxious to procure other specimens, 

 and set to work and systematically hunted the surrounding heath ; the 

 result of a week's hunting was — two smooth snakes, and saw one 

 other glide under a gorse-bush, but was too late to secure it ; two 

 adders; about seventeen common ringed snakes; three sand-lizards 

 {L. agilis), and a very great number of the little viviparous lizard 

 {Z. vivipara). 



I found the common viviparous lizard more than usually abundant 

 at the spot where the two smooth snakes were caught, and have no 

 doubt but that this very circumstance determined the presence of the 

 snakes in this particular locality. 



My friends the smooth snakes, when first caught, hiss and bite freely, 

 but soon release their hold; unlike the ringed snake they do not emit 



