1658 The Zoologist— May, 1869. 



portion first engulphed was digested. After the meal was quite 

 finished, the Coronella sought out the water, and seemed to take great 

 pleasure in bathing, remaining in it for an hour at a time — no doubt 

 to mitigate the great heat generated by its wonderfully active diges- 

 tion."— (Zool. 9507). 



In this extract, which relates to Continental specimens, it will be 

 seen that two important additions are made to our previous knowledge. 

 First, that the Lizard Snake will devour the Blindworms as well as 

 Lizards ; and, secondly, that it will occasionally involve its victim in 

 its crushing folds, after the manner so common among the larger 

 ophidians. 



Schlegel informed us that the Lizard Snake is viviparous, the eggs 

 taking three or four months to hatch inside the mother; and that in 

 August she brings forth eight or ten living young ones, which are at 

 first perfectly white. In the ' Field' for October, 1862, Mr. Buckland 

 records the parturition of a female captured in the New Forest, and 

 gives details of the little family which leave notliing to be desired. 



" The old mother snake is coiled up in a graceful combination of 

 circles; her little family are nestled together on her back ; they have 

 twisted their liny bodies together into a shape somewhat resembling a 

 double figure of 8, and there they lie basking at their ease in the mid- 

 day sun; the old mother is vibrating her forked tongue at me; the 

 little ones are imitating their mother's actions, and are vibrating their 

 tiny tongues also ; the mamma's head is most beautifully iridescent in 

 the sun, and her babies are in this respect nearly as pretty as their 

 mother: they are about five inches long, about as thick as a small 

 goose-quill, and smoother than the finest velvet ; their eyes are like 

 their mother's, their tails are unlike their mother's; she has lost the 

 tip of her tail, her young ones have not — they are tapered off to a 

 point as sharp as a pin. Their §kins are of a brownish black colour, 

 and marked like their mother's, only that these markings are not yet 

 well developed ; the scales on the under parts of their bodies are of a 

 beautiful pale glittering blue ; altogether they are real little beauties." 

 — Frank Buckland, in 'Field,'' October, 1862. 



In order to complete my account of this interesting species, it is 

 necessary to say something of its mode of ecdysis or sloughing ; and 

 here I am again fortunate in having Mr. Spicer's translation of l>r. 

 Opel's observations before me, so that we have now as satisfactory a 

 life-history of this comparatively new species as of either of the reptiles 

 that have been familiar to us from childliood. 



