THE SMOOTH SNAKE. 49 
six years before, and on sending his example to the 
Museum, its identity was at once established (‘ Zool.,’ 
1859, p. 5787). During numberless rambles on Blox- 
worth Heath from 1853 to 1872 I was on the look- 
out for this snake, but only once saw an example, 
which I failed to capture. It was not until June 
1872 that I succeeded in authenticating it in that 
locality by actual capture (‘ Zool, 1872, p. 3113). 
Records, however, of its occurrence in the New Forest 
have been published, in 1862, by Mr F. Buckland in 
the ‘Field’ newspaper, where other notices also, I 
believe, subsequently appeared by the same writer, 
but without details of time and locality (see ‘Zool.,’ 
1869 (2), p. 1658). Sinee 1872 I have seen it much 
more frequently and captured it occasionally, in order 
to have always by me one or two preserved specimens 
for friends who have wanted it either for their own or 
for public collections. In the year 1879 it was un- 
usually frequent on Bloxworth Heath. Several were 
killed one day in September or early in October of 
that year by a shooting - party, under the impression 
they were adders. Having been informed of this on 
the same evening by one of the shooters at a dinner- 
party, I took a moonlight tramp that same night over 
the Heath to redeem two of their victims, feeling 
quite sure (as it turned out) that they were Coronclla 
levis and not adders; the next day being Sunday, I 
feared, too, that before the Monday they would be 
made prize of by some old carrion-crow or other 
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