26 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
(Glamorgan), when walking along a hedgerow, my 
attention was attracted by a hissing noise, and on 
looking into the ditch I saw an adder about 10 inches 
long, which had been half - swallowed from the tail 
forwards by a ring snake. The latter was about 3% 
feet long. The ring snake itself was dead, whether 
suffocated or poisoned I am unable to say. I killed 
the adder, and on examining the ring snake could 
see no marks of its having been bitten by its 
adversary.” 
A good deal more will be said about this snake 
in discussing the points of contrast and comparisons 
with the adder. But there is one matter which must 
strike the thoughtful student or reader in connection 
with this species, and it is this. Seeing that the 
average number of eges deposited by each female 
is about thirty, how is it that these snakes are not 
found more frequently? For, after all, it comes as 
a surprise to meet one of them in a walking tour, not 
to say in an afternoon stroll. Squirrels and stoats, 
and many other varieties of animals not nearly so 
prohfic as ring snakes, are encountered, but every 
one is astonished on meeting a serpent in most parts 
of England. No doubt the retiring and unobtrusive 
disposition of the reptile has a good deal to do with 
its being seen so infrequently, for it will always glide 
quickly and noiselessly away, if it ean, when dis- 
turbed. Then, too, its protective colouring makes it 
difficult to see in the grass unless the observer is 
