THE COMMON SNAKE. 99 



in his house quite tame. Though this was usually 

 as sweet in its person as any other animal, yet 

 whenever a stranger, or a dog or cat entered, it 

 would begin to hiss, and soon filled the room with 

 an effluvia so nauseous as to render it almost in- 

 supportable*. 



An intimate friend of mine f had a Common 

 Snake in his rooms at Cambridge near three months. 

 He kept it in a box of bran ; and, during all that 

 time, he never could discover that it ate any thing, 

 although he frequently put both eggs and frogs, 

 the favourite food of this species, into the box. 

 Whenever he was in the room he used to let the 

 animal out of its prison : it would first crawl several 

 times round the floor, apparently with a desire to 

 escape ; and, when it found its attempts fruitless, it 

 would climb up the tables and chairs, and not un- 

 frequently even up the chair of its owner as he sate 

 at his table. At length it became so familiar as to 

 lie in a serpentine form on the upper bar of his 

 chair : it would crawl through his fingers if held at 

 a little distance before its head, or lie at full length 

 upon his table, while he was writing or reading, for 

 an hour or more at a time. When first brought into 

 the room, it used to hiss and dart out its forked 

 tongue ; but it in no instance emitted any un- 

 pleasant vapour. It was .in all its actions remark- 

 ably cleanly. Sometimes it was indulged with a 



* White's Natural History of Selborne. 

 t Mr. Revitt Sheppard, F. L. S. of Gonvil and Caius College, 

 Cambridge. 



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