THAMES PROVINCE. 281 
where I have seen as many as a dozen in a day’s fly- 
catching. Ring snakes are common in almost all parts 
of Berks. At Bear Wood last season (1900) I saw a 
great number of them rolling about together near the 
water, two of which I captured, measuring 32 and 54 
inches long respectively. I find that the adders vary 
very much in colour in the same districts. <A friend 
captured a specimen of the small red viper at Tylhurst 
in this county two years ago, and I took one in the 
Caversham Warren, Oxfordshire, in the year 1864.’— 
C. N. Allen, 102 Donnington Gardens, Reading. 
“ Adders are rare on the north side of the downs, 
but on the south side, near Hermitage and Newbury, 
they are met with more frequently. An under-keeper 
tells me that he has not seen one during seventeen 
years on the north side. 
“We have many ring snakes, however, on this side 
of the downs, the size, roughly speaking, being any- 
thing up to 35 feet. 
“The belief that the adder swallows her young is 
prevalent here, as in so many other localities.”— 
Eleanor G. Hayden, Steventon, Berks. 
Oxfordshire. 
“Certainly the ringed snake is the most common— 
roughly speaking, in the proportion of 100 to 1. I 
am not aware of the occurrence of the smooth snake in 
this county.”—Lilian Veley (Hon. Sec. Nat. Hist. Soc.), 
20 Bradmore Road, Oxford. 
