SCOTLAND. 355 
wrigeling and was dead! The good people of Iona 
were surely not to blame if, discarding the suggestion 
that the reptile had died from exhaustion after its 
long swim, they rather attributed its sudden death 
to St Columba’s blessing of their island, which for 
ever rendered its soil inimical to any poisonous 
creature that ventured to invade it.—I am, «c., 
ALEXANDER STEWART, LL.D. 
An excellent account of the “ Reptiles and Batrach- 
ians of the Edinburgh District” was read on March 
21, 1894, by Mr Wm. Evans, F.R.S.E., before the 
Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. The author 
has sent me this paper with his kind permission to 
quote it, and accordingly I have made the following 
extracts from it, and from some further notes he has 
added since then :— 
“Tropidonotus natrix (Ringed Snake), — Several 
authors refer to this species as an inhabitant of Scot- 
land, but their statements are for the most part of 
a very general character; and, so far as I can dis- 
cover, no instance of the actual capture of a specimen 
in a wild state is on record.” [Then follow quotations 
from other writers.] “After carefully considering the 
above evidence, I have come to the conclusion that, 
although probably at one time a native of the Low- 
lands of Scotland (including the Lothians), the ringed 
snake does not now exist there as an indigenous 
animal. As an escape, or au introduced species, it 
