264 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
September, I saw a remarkable sight—viz., nine ring 
snakes go in one after the other from some clover, 
which lay well to the sun. A friend who was with 
me at the time was jumping about in all directions to 
avoid them. This happened on Bookham farm in this 
parish. I have questioned my keeper, who is a native 
of Central Dorset and worked for thirty years at one 
place near here, and he has given me the following 
items from his own experience :— 
“J. He has killed about twenty ring snakes and 
twenty adders in 1899. 
“2. He once killed three at one shot. 
“3. He killed two adders during the first week of 
February 1900 (very early for them to be astir). 
“4. He has lalled a ring snake 35 inches in leneth, 
and found twenty-eight young oues. 
“5. He once found a ring snake in a bird’s nest in 
a hedge. 
“6, Ife killed nine slow-worms in one of my fields 
when haymaking this year (1900). 
“7. He has seen specimens of small red vipers in 
Meleourt Park and black adders at Doles Ash (both 
places some three imiles from here)! 
“8. He once found a ring snake in a flint. 
“The adder averages from 18 to 23 inches here, and 
the ring snake from 30 to 36 inches. I have never 
seen the smooth snake.”’—Rev. F. W. Brandreth, M.A., 
the Manor, Buckland Newton, Dorchester. 
1 
we 
Cf, Essex, Caermarthen, and Northumberland, pp. 279, 311, 3: 
