Welsh Journals

NOTES ON THE THREE BRITISH OPHIDIA. By ARTHUR LOVERIDGE. Having derived considerable pleasure during the past few years from associating with our local reptilian fauna, and as I believe no paper has ever been given to the Society on this subject, I thought it would not be amiss for me to communicate a few of my own observations, which I hope may prove of interest to my fellow members. Of the three snakes known to Britain, one is never found in Wales, this is Coronella austriaca-the Smooth Snake, first discovered in this country by Mr. Frederick Bond, who found it near Ringwood, Hampshire, in June, 1853. As an excellent account of its first recorded occurrences in Britain is given by the Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge in the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History Society," I shall not refer to these, except to state that at no time has it been a common reptile, and as far as I can judge from a perusal of the very limited literature on the Smooth Snake, probably not more than two hundred specimens have been taken in England, it would also appear to be on the decrease in most of its haunts. On October 3rd last I paid a visit to Bloxworth Heath, in Dorset, where it has been taken. The day was overcast, with a biting east wind and rain threatening. It was 11 a.m. before I arrived on the Heath. After searching for three hours without success as far as the Coronellas were con- cerned (though I caught a sleepy grass snake, besides some adders and lizards), I was actually returning, when I turned aside into a little quarried-out hollow. Taking a casual glance round, to my surprise I came upon two female Smooth Snakes in a semi-torpid condition, these are the specimens which I have here to exhibit to you this evening they travelled the hundred odd miles to Cardiff next day in