TREATMENT OF SNAKES IN CAPTIVITY. 21!) 



hungry ; in the tropics I have known it eat raw meat. When 

 newly caught it is prone to emit a very powerful and unpleasant 

 odour when alarmed, an odour which no doubt constitutes its 

 means of self-defence (why this species should not use its teeth 

 like any other when attacked has never been explained), since 

 animals, as well as man, betray disgust at it ; but this propensity 

 soon disappears as the reptile becomes tame, and with proper 

 care Grass-snakes may be kept with as little offence as any. 

 Their eggs are easily hatched in a conservatory, the hot-water 

 cage, or other warm situation. 



Very different in many respects is the Smooth Snake (Coro- 

 nella lavis, or austriaca, Natrix dumfrisiensis, See.). Rarely 

 exceedingly two feet in length, and measuring on an average 

 about eighteen inches, it is of much more slender habit and 

 possesses a smaller and more lizard-like head than the last 

 species ; and its brown, speckled upper surface might be con- 

 sidered dull were it not for its exquisite metallic iridescence. 

 Some specimens present a deep salmon or even crimson colour- 

 ation of the ventral plates, such individuals being usually very 

 pale above. Not the least offensive odour emanates from this 

 little creature ; it does not hiss much, but is generally very 

 spiteful at first, biting furiously and repeatedly when touched, 

 though the teeth inflict no more than the slightest scratch upon 

 the skin. It very quickly becomes tame, however, showing no 

 nervousness when strangers handle it, as the Grass-snake does ; 

 altogether it would be the preferable of the two, both as a pet 

 and object of study, if its choice of food were not so rigidly limited 

 to that most inconvenient article of diet — lizards. Hence the 

 difficulty of keeping it, though it will exist a long time — a year 

 or more — without feeding when there is a dearth of lacertine 

 provisions ; English specimens must assuredly be often reduced 

 to the necessity of doing so in a state of freedom. Occasionally 

 they will accept a slowworm, and it is said they have been known 

 to take young mice and grasshoppers, but frogs are invariably 

 refused. Like the Grass-snake, this Coronella occurs abundantly 

 on the Continent, but with a curious limitation to certain dis- 

 tricts ; for instance, it is found in great numbers on the right 

 bank of the Elbe, and less plentifully on the right bank of the 

 Moselle, but is unknown on the left banks of those rivers ; 

 frequent in the north of Italy, rare in the centre and south of 



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