108 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



determined to investigate the habits of common snakes under 

 what appeared to him to be the most favourable circum- 

 stances, by keeping them in an enclosure upon his lawn, wherein 

 they might be considered to live in a perfect state of nature. A 

 circular space, between sixty and seventy feet in circumference, 

 was surrounded with a wall four feet high ; the foundations of 

 this wall were dug to a depth of three feet, to preclude the 

 possibility of any reptile burrowing its way beneath it to the 

 outer world ; for no trouble or expense was spared to insure 

 completeness in every detail by the designer. Part of the ground 

 was planted with thick, coarse grass and rank weeds, while the 

 rest was left bare ; there was a huge pile of rustic wood and 

 stone in the centre, to hide a mound of rotting vegetable matter, 

 accessible to the snakes through the interstices of the rockery ; 

 and a small pond gave lodging to an abundance of live food in 

 the shape of frogs, fish, and newts. The wall was plastered 

 smooth as glass on its inner side, all overhanging or under- 

 growing boughs and stems were cut away, that no prisoner — 

 if prisoners they could be called — might find the means of 

 escape, and the snakes were turned in, scores, if not hundreds 

 of them ; grass-snakes like ours, for the most part, though other 

 kinds indigenous to the continent, of which shall afterwards 

 make mention, were there too. It was a great success — for the 

 snakes ; they did remarkably well, as might be expected in such 

 luxurious quarters, fed well, bred well, but were scarcely ever 

 visible. If one walked stealthily up to the wall and peeped over, 

 there might be time to note two or three indistinct objects flash 

 away into the tangled bush with an angry hiss, certainly ; but 

 neither this nor going in amongst them and stirring them up 

 from then- jungle, where they laj 7 matted like the blades of grass, 

 could properly be termed studying their habits in a state of 

 freedom. I am afraid the very pretence soon dwindled down to 

 an undisguised sensational exhibition to guests at night ; the 

 wall was surrounded as quietly as possible in the darkness, and 

 and the light from several lantcrnes sonnies suddenly turned on. 

 It would be some moments before the snakes, lizards, and frogs, 

 bewildered by the illumination in the midst of their nocturnal 

 rambles and avocations, contrived to stow themselves away ; 

 and the whole enclosure presented a creeping, leaping, hissing, 

 slimy nightmare for herpetophobic people to shudder at. If 



