336 ©9Wild Life in a Southern County. 
selves up and spring—is, however, very prevalent. 
They all tell you that a snake can leap across a ditch. 
This is not true. A snake, if alarmed, will make for 
the hedge ; and he glides much faster than would be 
supposed. On reaching the ‘shoré’ or edge of the 
ditch he projects his head over it, and some six or 
eight inches of the neck, while the rest of the body 
slides down the slope. If it happens to be a steep- 
sided ditch he often loses his balance and rolls to 
the bottom ; and that is what has been mistaken for 
leaping. As he rises up the mound he follows a zig- 
zag course, and presently enters some small hole or a 
cavity in a decaying stole. After creeping in some 
distance he often meets with an obstruction, and has 
to remain half in and half out till he can force his 
way. He usually takes possession of a mouse-hole, 
and does not seem to be able to enlarge it for ad- 
ditional convenience. If you put your stick on his 
head as he slips through the grass his body rolls and 
twists, and almost ties itself in a knot. 
I have never been able to find a snake in the 
actual process of divesting his body of the old skin, 
but have several times disturbed them from a bunch 
of grass and found the slough in it. There was an 
old wall, very low and somewhat ruinous, much over- 
grown with barley-like grasses, where I found a 
slough several times in succession, as if it had been a 
favourite resort for the purpose. The slough isa pale 
colour—there is no trace on it of the snake’s natural 
