THE SMOOTH SNAKE. 53 
have on several occasions met with it in marshy 
ground and swamp herbage. With regard to its 
mention in general works on British Reptiles, it is 
thought by some authorities to be identical with a 
very young obscure example described and figured 
many years ago by Sowerby as a new species— 
Coluber dumfrisiensis —found near Dumfries, and 
noticed by Dr Bell (‘ British Reptiles, 1849, p. 60). 
Dr Bell did not, however, consider it to be a good 
species ; and, on the whole, its claim to be identical 
with Coronella levis appears very uncertain.” 
The paper from which the foregoing extracts are 
taken, and which leave little to be desired from the 
British field naturalist’s point of view, was read on 
January 20, 1886, at a meeting in Dorchester, and at 
the same meeting Mr William Penney, of Poole, and 
others referred to various instances of this rare species 
being found in Dorsetshire and Hampshire. 
In a letter to the ‘Outlook’ (November 10, 1900) 
Mr J. Bevir, Wellington College, Berks, whose letter 
to myself is quoted above, makes a further reference 
to the habits and distribution of the smooth snake in 
Berkshire. After stating his view of “the myth” of 
the adder swallowing her young, the writer goes on to 
say :— 
“In the course of two years I had five specimens of 
the harmless smooth-crowned snake (Coronella lavis), 
but that is nearly twenty years ago. I think it is 
extinct in these parts nowadays. It always interested 
