THE RING SNAKE. 25 
The tongue is very long and forked, and is provided 
with a muscular sheath, by means of which it can be 
quickly protruded and withdrawn. The jawbones 
are very freely movable, allowing of the distension of 
the throat to the immense extent required to swallow 
the large articles of diet. On dissection the right 
lung only is found fully developed, the left being 
rudimentary. It is obviously more convenient for a 
long cylindrical animal such as a serpent to have one 
long tubular lung than two shorter and more bulky 
ones. This want of symmetry is to be seen in other 
internal organs, no doubt for a like reason. Thus the 
right ovary is larger than the left, and is not opposite 
but anterior to the left one. The windpipe is much 
elongated. The lack of true eyelids is supplied by the 
presence of a transparent scale, like a watch-glass, 
which is shed with the rest of the slough. 
One prominent feature of the ring snake is its 
habit of emitting a powerful and unpleasant odour 
when disturbed. A correspondent of mine, who has 
killed some hundreds of ring snakes, assures me that 
he can always smell them directly he gets within 
a few yards of them. The odour is the product of 
two glands placed just within the anal orifice. So 
much for the structure of the most common of British 
serpents. 
The only instance I have ever come across of a 
ring snake attacking an adder is furnished me by Mr 
Rees, who says: “One summer’s morning at Newpark 
