VARIOUS INCIDENTS RECORDED. 227 
the experiment successful, but the pigs eventually 
multiplied aud provided most excellent sport. 
Mr Edwin Gosling (East Grinstead) tells me of an 
incident which further illustrates this weakness. of 
pigs for serpents. He once came across a large 
serpent in Llangwyfan Bog (Wales) asleep on some 
water-weeds. The reptile was between 5 and 6 feet 
long, and was evidently a foreign serpent which had 
escaped from a collection, or been washed ashore from 
a wreck, or in some other way got out of its natural 
latitude. He killed the serpent, and on opening it 
found a large brown rat in the stomach. He left the 
snake where he killed it, intending to pick it up on 
his return and have it identified at South Kensing- 
ton. However, a short time afterwards, on returning 
from the shore of the bay, he found that a pig had 
just finished devouring the serpent—The Author. 
Snakes in trees.—‘“ I once saw a beautiful speci- 
men of the ring snake, Just fresh from casting its 
slough, coiled up on the branches and leaves of a 
hazel-bush, about 4 feet from the ground, basking in 
the sun, and probably on the watch for a small bird. 
The bright colours of the snake on the background 
of the green leaves formed a imost charming picture. 
Mr EF. Blagg tells me that it took so much strength 
to pull one of these snakes out of a loose stone wall 
in which it had taken refuge that he was afraid it 
might be pulled in two.” (The tail, no doubt, was 
