Our reptiles and batrachians; a plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs and tortoises indigenous to Great Britain . (Tropidonotus Matrix. Dum. & Bibr.)A mass of Snakes eggs from a dunghill. Everybody involuntarily shudders at the name of asnake. Very few possess courage enough to attemptstaring one out of countenance, or staying to countthe number of scales on its head. Fancy oneselfdeeply intent, with nose unusually low, seeking theruddy wild strawberry on a sunny hedge-bank, andeven whilst smacking the lips with the relish of the. THE COMMON SNAKE. 47 tart little f
Our reptiles and batrachians; a plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs and tortoises indigenous to Great Britain . (Tropidonotus Matrix. Dum. & Bibr.)A mass of Snakes eggs from a dunghill. Everybody involuntarily shudders at the name of asnake. Very few possess courage enough to attemptstaring one out of countenance, or staying to countthe number of scales on its head. Fancy oneselfdeeply intent, with nose unusually low, seeking theruddy wild strawberry on a sunny hedge-bank, andeven whilst smacking the lips with the relish of the. THE COMMON SNAKE. 47 tart little fruit but lately conveyed there, about topluck another yet larger and redder, when lo! be-neath our very fingers glides the sleek, attenuatedform of the reptile—ay, within ten inches of ourdepressed nose. Under such circumstances, shouldwe be surprised at finding ourselves starting back;at feeling a slight and momentary sensation, as of adrop of water trickling down our back ; or at for-getting to observe whether the intruder was really aviper or a snake ? What is called the Common (Plate 3.) or RingedSnake with us, is really the most common snake inEurope. It is found in almost every country fromSweden in the North, to Sicily in the South, ex-cepting Ireland, whence it is said to have beenbanished by the good Saint Patrick, and in theextreme north of Russia, whence it is probablyexcluded by the temperature, independent of saintlyproscription. In Britain it is far more commonin the South than in the North; some haveeven had the temerity to deny its o
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubject, booksubjectreptiles
