Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/48

26 ever, the inspector will probably serve notice to quit upon them, failing compliance with which more summary measures will be taken."

This was about the second week in September, 1900, and most of the daily papers had some reference to the curious phenomenon. It seemed to me that it would be interesting to investigate the matter thoroughly, and accordingly I communicated with the sanitary inspector of Llanelly, to whom I am indebted for the facts here related.

It seems, then, that the house in question is one of a row of eighteen, and faces the north. The gardens are in front of the houses, with a road between. At the back of the row there is a stubble-field, the level of which is a little higher than the floor of the houses. There are no back doors on to this field, each house having a small back window, some of which are made to open, others not. Below these houses the locality is very wet and damp, and there are several small old coal-pits, over a hundred years old. For the last six or seven years there have been scores of Snakes to be seen about these houses, even climbing up the walls, and on to the old-fashioned roofs which they have. For the last two or three years the reptiles seem to have become even more numerous. In the particular house (No. 2) referred to in the above quoted paragraphs, the woman who lived in it one day saw a small Snake on the hearthstones, right before the fire. The next day she saw several dropping down from a hole in the wall about two feet from the floor. They then made a search, and found a dozen more, and again, in another place, several small ones. The tenant then made out that the place was unhealthy, and left, having first of all reported this extraordinary condition of affairs. On Oct. 28th the sanitary inspector was looking over some repairs to this particular house. The back wall was taken down and the oven, but nothing was found there. However, on removing the rubbish, he saw a small Snake, and captured it. Such are authentic facts of the matter given to me by Mr. D.P. Thomas (sanitary inspector).

Of course, the two interesting questions were, first, which of our Snakes was it that was thus obtruding itself in such numbers; and, secondly, where did they come from, and how? There could be little room for doubt as regards the first; the mere fact