358 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



REPTILIA. 



Enemies of Young Grass Snakes. — On August 15th, when entering 

 a conservatory where I keep a number of reptiles and amphibians, I 

 discovered a large female Toad (Bufo vulgaris) engaged in swallowing 

 a young Grass Snake (Tropidonotus natrix). The Snake had coiled 

 its tail round the left fore limb of the Toad, which gave the latter 

 some little difficulty to overcome, but in about three minutes the last 

 twitching bit of Snake's tail had disappeared. The Snake had emerged 

 from one of two clutches (together making sixty eggs) which I had 

 placed in a bed of dry moss and decaying vegetable matter on the floor 

 a fortnight before. Though the conservatory is not artificially heated, 

 and the spot where the eggs were placed gets no sun, these Snakes 

 emerged more than a fortnight before the usual time. To return to 

 the Toad, it was at 9.30 a.m. that I interrupted its meal, and I 

 immediately removed the remaining eggs to a vivarium for safety ; 

 noticing that several eggs had hatched but the Snakes were not to 

 be seen. At 3 p.m. I chloroformed the Toad, and the following week 

 dissected it, when, to my surprise, I found no fewer than four young 

 Snakes in the stomach and the tail of a fifth protruding from the 

 intestine. The Snakes in the stomach were coiled and packed in a 

 most wonderful manner, and the stomach appeared to be distended to 

 its utmost, and was forced well to the left side of the body. The 

 Snakes were from seven to seven and a half inches in length, giving 

 a total length of three feet, nearly as thick as an ordinary pencil. 

 None of the Snakes in the stomach or the visible tail of the fifth 

 showed any signs of digestion, so I think it only reasonable to assume 

 that the Snake in the intestine was the first swallowed, and, having 

 room, sought to escape from its tomb by forcing its way through the 

 pyloric valve into the duodenum. Data as to the enemies of young 

 Snakes are badly needed. For some time past I have been trying to 

 ascertain what becomes of the vast numbers of young Snakes that 

 are hatched every year. Eggs are common enough, yet young 



