26 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



ever, the inspector will probably serve notice to quit upon them, 

 failing compliance with which more summary measures will be 

 taken." 



This was about the second week in September, 1900, and 

 most of the daily papers had some reference to the curious 

 phenomenon. It seemed to me that it would be interesting to 

 investigate the matter thoroughly, and accordingly I communi- 

 cated with the sanitary inspector of Llanelly, to whom I am 

 indebted for the facts here related. 



It seems, then, that the house in question is one of a row of 

 eighteen, and faces the north. The gardens are in front of the 

 houses, with a road betiveen. At the back of the row there is a 

 stubble-field, the level of which is a little higher than the floor of 

 the houses. There are no back doors on to this field, each house 

 having a small back window, some of which are made to open, 

 others not. Below these houses the locality is very wet and 

 damp, and there are several small old coal-pits, over a hundred 

 years old. For the last six or seven years there have been scores 

 of Snakes to be seen about these houses, even climbing up the 

 walls, and on to the old-fashioned roofs which they have. For 

 the last two or three years the reptiles seem to have become even 

 more numerous. In the particular house (No. 2) referred to in 

 the above quoted paragraphs, the woman who lived in it one day 

 saw a small Snake on the hearthstones, right before the fire. 

 The next day she saw several dropping down from a hole in the 

 wall about two feet from the floor. They then made a search, 

 and found a dozen more, and again, in another place, several 

 small ones. The tenant then made out that the place was 

 unhealthy, and left, having first of all reported this extraordinary 

 condition of affairs. On Oct. 28th the sanitary inspector was 

 looking over some repairs to this particular house. The back 

 wall was taken down and the oven, but nothing was found there. 

 However, on removing the rubbish, he saw a small Snake, and 

 captured it. Such are authentic facts of the matter given to me 

 by Mr. D. P. Thomas (sanitary inspector). 



Of course, the two interesting questions were, first, which of 

 our Snakes was it that was thus obtruding itself in such numbers ; 

 and, secondly, where did they come from, and how? There 

 could be little room for doubt as regards the first ; the mere fact 



