6 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



snake came wriggling and gliding along the top of the water from the 

 opposite side, and, passing close by my line, made its way up the 

 bank. So thoroughly is the snake at home in the water that it will 

 often sink to the bottom, and remain there a considerable time. 



The snake is often to be seen gliding about the hedgerows, and 

 those who would like to see the very perfection of flexible motion 

 should certainly pause a few moments if they happen to come upon 

 our snakey friend wriggling his way up the bank. The lithe, slender 

 body of the snake is capable of being turned in any direction, even 

 held bolt upright, and, by erecting its scales stiffly, it can climb an 

 almost perpendicular bank. 



As the snake glides slowly along, with protruding and quivering 

 tongue, it is on the look-out for prey, and woe to the unlucky frog it 

 happens to come across in its investigations of the holes and crevices. 



Of the manner in which the snake treats a frog when it happens to 

 meet with one, that pleasantest of naturalists, the Rev. J. G. Wood, 

 thus informs us : — " I was once walking in a field, and heard a strange 

 cry from a neighbouring ditch. On going towards the spot I saw there 

 a large snake struggling with a frog. The frog was comparatively as 

 large as the snake, and, as it had a plain objection to being swallowed, 

 there was some turmoil. The snake was stretched along the bottom 

 of the ditch, which at this time was dry, and he held in his mouth 

 both hind-feet of the frog, which was also stretched forward at full 

 length, resisting with its fore-legs the attempts of the snake to draw it 

 back, and croaking dismally. The strife continued for some time, 

 when I made a sudden movement, and the snake, loosing its hold of 

 the frog, glided up the opposite bank. The frog slowly gathered itself 

 together, sat still for some time, and then hopped away." To this we 

 add that but for for Mr. Wood's appearance poor froggy would doubt- 

 less have been soon gulped down alive, and consigned to a living 

 tomb. 



To retain such a wet, slippery customer as a frog, the snake has 

 two rows of small teeth inside the mouth, specially adapted for the 

 purpose — the tips being recurved or turned back towards the swallow. 

 Consequently Mr. Frog is most decidedly taken in and done for if he 

 happens in his rambles to meet with a Tvopidonotus natrix. 



Frogs, I believe, are the favourite food of the snake. For these it 

 will search both in the water and on land. In 1881, according to the 

 Field, an angler, when fishing in the river Witham for perch, hooked 

 a snake thirty-four inches in length, which had taken a fancy to his 

 bait — a small frog. According to a correspondent of the Zoologist^ 



