Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/205

Rh a tree, or under a quickset hedge, where sometimes a considerable number spend the cold season, coiled up together in torpidity, until the balmy air of spring warms them into renewed life and activity. Dr. Carpenter mentions an instance which occurred within his own knowledge, in which thirteen hundred Ringed Snakes were found in an old limekiln. This species does not usually climb, but Mr. Jesse states that it does occasionally ascend into the branches of a tree, probably for the purpose of rifling the nests of birds, on the eggs and young of which it often regales. It is fond of the water, in which it swims with elegance and facility, with the head and neck raised above the surface; and this is not surprising, when we consider that its favourite food is that expert swimmer and diver, the frog. Mr. Bell, in a very interesting manner, describes the mode in which the hapless victim is seized and swallowed, taking occasion to explain the peculiar mechanism of the jaws in this Order, a structure to which we have already alluded. “I have seen,” observes this gentleman, “one of these voracious creatures in pursuit of a frog, which appeared perfectly conscious of its approaching fate, leaping with less and less power as it found its situation more hopeless, and the crisis of its fate approaching, and uttering its peculiar weak cry with more than usual shrillness, until at length it was seized by its pursuer by the hinder leg, and gradually devoured. The manner in which the Snake takes its prey is very curious. If it be a frog, it generally seizes it by the hinder leg, because it is usually taken in