238 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
large number of correspondents [ have had in the 
last few years, all of whom were evidently interested 
in the subject. I have endeavoured to get a record 
of our serpents for every county in the kingdom, and 
for this purpose approached the secretaries of Field 
Naturalists’ Clubs in all those counties where such 
societies are working. In each case my inquiries 
took the same form, and the queries are reproduced 
here in the hope that future correspondents will 
supply me with local records on these lunes. The 
questions asked were :— 
1. Which snake is most common in the county (or 
district) of 2 
2. What is the averave leneth of the adder here ? 
3. What is the average leneth of the ring snake 
here ? 
4. Does the smooth snake occur to your knowledge ? 
5, Does the small red viper oceur ? 
6. Kindly add any other note on snakes you deem 
of interest. 
The quotation of the questions will explain the 
uniform nature of the arrangement of the county 
reports. 
In addition to field naturalists I have bad the 
assistance of some of the curators of our museuns, and 
of authors of books on county fauna, and have so been 
able to bring together a mass of faets which, though 
some of if was in existence before, was so scattered 
that it was not available for purposes of comparison. 
