367 



NOTES on REPTILES. 



Grass Snake near Hull.— During; the last few years Grass Snakes 

 {Tropidonotus natrix) have been very numerous in Holderness, particularly 

 in the district immediately east of Hull. A very fine specimen, caught at 

 Kelsey Hill by Mr. J. W. Boult, has been placed alive in the Hull Museum, 

 where it is a source of attraction. — T. Sheppard, Hull, 15th July 1902. 



The Grass Snake in the Hull Museum has recently cast its skin. The 

 entire skin was gradually stripped, commencing at the head, and the process 

 occupied two days. The snake has also laid seven eggs — two on 4th 

 August, one on the 8th, one on the 13th, and the remainder at intervals 

 of about a week each. The eg-gs are nearly an inch long and are of 

 a cream colour. They have a tough cuticle instead of the ordinary egg 

 shell.— T. Sheppard, Hull, 14th August, 1902. 



Lizard in Lancashire (Vice-Counties 60 and 69).— Macpherson 

 ('Fauna of Lakeland,' p. 462) g-ives only one localised record for the occur- 

 rence of Lacerta vivipara Jacq., and that is in Westmorland, near Tebay. 

 The animal is said by him to be plentiful. It may on the warm moors, but 

 it so happens that I have not been so fortunate as to see many. Last year 

 one crossed the road in front of me near Newland Trough, outside 

 Ulverston, and the other day one was on the stones of the stile at the 

 bottom of the hill between Bank and Burton Wells, Siiverdale. — S. L. 

 Petty, Ulverston, 9th July 1902. 



Living Toads in Solid Stone.— I was told by a friend the other day 

 that the sexton at his church had found a yard deep, while digging- a g'rave, 

 a flower-head 'like a knur,' and in good preservation, which proved to be 

 that of the Globe Thistle. Feeling incredulous — I suppose I looked so — 

 when my friend said, in answer to my thoughts, ' the sexton knew it was so, 

 because he threw it out with the earth.' That both were perfectly sincere 

 I had no doubt, but I knew, of course, that (as they stated it) it was 

 impossible. On inquiry, I found that a ' mate ' had slipped the flower-head 

 into the sexton's pocket, in order to ' have him on,' and he ' reckoned ' it 

 had fallen out while he was digging. Here, thought I, is a parallel to the 

 ' living toad ' story. The flower-head is the toad ; the sexton is the finder 

 thereof ; the friend is the one who tells what the finder has found, both fully 

 believing what they state, but (having no scientific training) mistaken. 

 The finding of an undecayed thistle-head a yard deep in undisturbed earth 

 is as well authenticated as the finding of a living toad in a solid block of 

 carboniferous sandstone, neither more nor less. When one has seen a dead 

 toad under such circumstances, it will be quite soon enough to expect to see 

 a living one. The head of the Globe Thistle {Echinops sphcerocephala\ is, 

 however, an interesting example of Linnaeus' Class Syngenesia, Order 

 Polygamia segreg-ata, each floret having- a separate involucre, or (more 

 scientifically expressed) ' numerous one-flowered capitula collected into 

 one large spherical head.'— W. Fowler, Liversedge, 22nd September 1902. 



» 



NORTHERN NOTES and NEWS. 



It is reported that two slight earthquake shocks occurred at Cheadle, 

 Cheshire, on the 8th July. 



Mr. C. S. Eccles (Hull) has issued a 2.8 pp. pamphlet dealing with the 

 'History of the Springhead Waterworks,' from which Hull s water supply 

 is obtained. 







The Rev. M. C. F. Morris, Rector of Nfunburnholme, lias wri 

 a valuable pamphlet of 32 pages on 'The Vowel-Sounds of the Easl 

 Yorkshire Folk-Speech.' 



1902 November 4. 



