330 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
Ripon Disrricr.—<I have often met with adders 
on the moors in this district when out collecting 
insects, and have never seen a ring snake but 
once. The adder averages 24 inches and grows to 
26 inches in leneth.’—C. Chapman, The Museum, 
Ripon. 
Yorkshire. 
“The adder is the most common in the moorland 
districts, the grass snake in the low-lying and wooded 
portions of the county. The male adder averages 18 
to 19 inches, the female about 25 inches. The largest 
female I have seen was 28 inches. The grass snake 
averages from 3 to 4 feet, but I have seen one 4 feet 
6 inches long. The smooth snake has never occurred 
in the county, to my knowledge. 
“Tt is not generally known that during the day- 
time grass snakes at times will coil themselves round 
the stems of the great reed (Arundo Phragmites) and 
other ditch-growing plants a foot or two above the 
surface of the ground or water as the case may be. 
A keeper in the Holderness district tells me that 
he has frequently seen them in this position. I 
have so often been told by men of known probity 
and good sense that they have .seen the young 
adders disappear down the throat of the mother 
that I am inclined to think there is really some- 
thing in it.’—Oxley Grabham, Pickering, Yorkshire. 
