308 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
heap near the Llanishen Viaduct, and the other ina 
similar position not far from the Tan Yard on Penarth 
Road. They were both females. 
“Our snakes and adders. in common with others, 
change their skins at more or less frequent intervals, 
but not, as is often stated, at regular periods, or once 
a-year, but sometimes as often as four or five times 
a-year, according to circumstances. In this ‘slough- 
ing’ process the skin begins to peel around the edges 
of the mouth, the old skin is thrust back over the 
head, and the snake crawls out, leaving its old coat 
turned inside out. I have frequently seen these 
‘sloughs’ collected and worn by men in the harvest- 
fields inside their hats as a specific against headache. 
The colours and markings are very bright and distinct 
after a change of skin. 
“ Adders appear to me to differ in colour somewhat, 
according to the soil upon which they are found. 
Many of those caught at Leckwith on the Lias lime- 
stone are very light-coloured, especially after a recent 
‘sloughing, and I have noticed a distinet reddish 
tinge to the adders which live about the old iron- 
mines at Little Garth. 
“T have kept a considerable number of snakes and 
adders alive in my vivarium during the past twenty 
years. Ring snakes are interesting, and rather traet- 
able in confinement, but vipers are utterly untamable. 
“As to the adder swallowing its young when danger 
threatens them, we must still consider this as ‘not 
