Extraordinary Capture of Snakes. 341 
eat mice, and to enter dairies sometimes for the milk 
spilt on the flagstones of the floor! They may 
often be found in the furrows in the meadows, which 
act as surface drains and are damp. 
Frogs have some power of climbing. I have 
found them on the roofs of outhouses which were 
covered with ivy ; they must have got up the ivy. 
Their toes are, indeed, to a certain degree prehensile, 
and they can cling with them. They sometimes 
make a low sound while in the ivy on such roofs ; to 
my ear it sounds like a hoarse ‘coo.’ Cats occasion- 
ally catch frogs by the leg, and torment them, letting 
the creature go only to seize it again, and finally 
devouring it. The wretched creature squeals with 
pain and terror exactly as when caught by a snake. 
No surer sign of coming rain than the appearance 
of the toad on the garden paths is known. Many 
1 An extraordinary instance of this has been very kindly communi- 
«ated to me by the writer of the following letter :— 
“Kingston Vicarage, Warehain, Dorset, October 27, 1878. 
‘Dear Sir—AZropos of your reference to the notion that snakes drink 
milk, I think it may interest you to hear of a curious instance of this 
which occurred near here about three months ago. At Kingswood, the 
home farm of Kempstone (Mr. J. H. Calcraft’s place, near Corfe 
Castle), the dairyman noticed that something seemed to enter the 
dairy through a hole in the wall and take the milk. Thinking it 
was a mouse or rat, he set a common gin at the hole, and caught a 
snake every day until he had caught seventeen! Mr. Calcraft would 
corroborate this. My informant is Mr. Bankes, rector of Corfe Castle, 
who heard it from the dairyman himself. 
‘Faithfully yours, 
‘S.C, SPENCER SMITH.’ 
