SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



73 



OUR BRITISH SNAKES. 

 By Catherine C. Hopley. 



T T seems hardly necessary to say that there are 

 only three species of snakes in Great Britain, 

 since in these days of popular ophiology even a 

 schoolboy knows that the slow-worm is not a snake, 

 but one of the limbless lizards. A rambler, 

 however, who is not an ophiologist, might 

 conclude by the various names given to our 

 commonest English snake that a great many kinds 

 are to be found. It is the " green snake " of one 

 county, the "ring snake " of another, the "grass 

 snake," the " water snake," " hedge snake, etc.," 

 of other localities, all, nevertheless, telling us in- 

 directly of its frequency and its habits. One, at 

 least, of its names describes a conspicuous feature, 

 this is the "ring," more correctly, collar, of a 

 golden colour, on its neck, which renders it 

 unmistakable, and easily distinguished from the 

 other native snakes. The yellow mark is not so 

 like a golden ring as it is supposed to be, and does 

 not extend entirely round the neck, the under part 

 of which is white. Also the collar is of various 

 shades of yellow, sometimes very bright, sometimes 

 almost inconspicuous, and occasionally perfectly 

 white. Most frequently, however, it is yellow, and 

 rendered still more vivid by the contiguous velvety- 

 black spots behind it. On account of this dis- 

 tinguishing mark it has received the specific name, 

 torquata, or torquatus, and has been usually known 

 as Natrix torquata, or Coluber natrix. Coluber, as a 

 generic name was, however, so generally used 

 formerly, and applied to such a diversity of snakes, 

 that our Coluber natrix is now more frequently dis- 

 tinguished as Tropidonotus natrix, the generic from 

 its carinated or keeled scales ; because the majority 

 of the harmless or colubrine snakes have smooth 

 scales, while keeled scales belong especially to 

 vipers. 



The Latin synonyms assigned to this snake have 

 been suggested by some especial feature, which 

 is more than we always find in scientific names. 

 Its names are few, one herpetologist having 

 given as a specific what another has chosen as 

 a generic name ; so that the changes are rung on 

 Coluber natrix, Matrix torquata, Tropidonotus natrix, 

 Natrix tropidonotus, Coluber torquatus, etc. Only the 

 word natrix remains to be discussed. This, in 

 Latin, a water-snake, indicates the water-loving 

 habits of our common snake, and is made the 

 name of the family or group Natricidce. It is not 



however, one of the true water-snakes, Homalopsida, 

 which are peculiarly adapted for an aquatic exist- 

 ence ; as, for instance, in having their nostrils on 

 the top of the snout. This may be seen in the 

 Anaconda at the Zoological Gardens, a water-snake. 



l-'erhaps it were as well to define more 

 accurately the different colubrine snakes, a very 

 large group, comprising two suborders. Broadly, 

 the term means of a snake-like form, in contra- 

 distinction to the viperine form. The bodies are 

 long and slender, tapering very gradually from the 

 largest part to the tip of the tail, which is also 

 long. Among them are both venomous and non- 

 venomous snakes. Consequently, the entire snake 

 tribe (the order Ophidia) are arranged under three 

 great sub-orders, viz. : — 



i. Ophidia colubkiformes, the harmless colu- 

 brines. 



2. Ophidia colubriformes venenosi, the veno- 

 mous colubrines, which, being often so like the 

 harmless snakes, are all the more dangerous. 



3. Ophidia viperiformes, the viperine snakes, 

 which, with their broad angular heads, thick 

 heavy bodies and general repulsiveness, are 

 easily recognized. 



Our two harmless snakes belong to the first sub- 

 order, and our viper to the third. Our British ring 

 snake may be taken as an example of the colubrine 

 forms. Its length, when full grown, may reach 

 four feet. Its head is a trifle broader than the 

 "neck," and is covered with smooth plates; its 

 body-scales are conspicuously carinated. It has 

 large round eyes, and is, on the whole, a graceful, 

 pretty snake. Its colour varies somewhat, but is 

 always darker on the back, and lighter, or nearly 

 white, on the belly ; along the sides, where the two 

 colours blend, are a row of black blotches, and 

 along the back are two rows of smaller black spots. 

 The prevailing tint is of an olive brown, with often 

 a greenish sheen, enough to account for its being 

 sometimes called the "green snake," but a mere 

 suspicion of green. 



The favourite food of Tropidonotus natrix is frogs, 

 after which it can dive in the water, or pursue 

 them on land with equal facility. Other small 

 water-fry, newts, or perhaps an occasional fish 

 of convenient dimensions, induce it to haunt the 

 banks of streams ; but it is also seen on hedge- 

 banks, in fields, and even woods, where small 



