Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/49

Rh of the reptiles being in such numbers made it most probable that the Common Ring- Snake (or Grass-Snake) was the intruder. However, to set the matter beyond all doubt, I requested Mr. Thomas to send me the specimen he caught for identification. This he kindly did, and it turned out to be, as I expected, Tropidonotus natrix (the Ring-Snake). It measured 7¼ in. in length, and was a young one, probably hatched out about the middle of August. As there was no suggestion that more than one kind of Snake participated in the visitation, this settled that point. The next question is—where did they come from? If one thinks for a moment of the natural habits of this our Common Snake, it is not difficult to see how it could easily happen that a large number might suddenly make their appearance. The Grass-Snake is oviparous, depositing its eggs, sometimes to the number of three dozen or more, in any convenient rubbish-heap, or manure, there leaving them to the action of the sun and moisture to be hatched out. They are deposited in the spring, and hatch out either in the autumn, or, as not infrequently happens, remaining over the winter unhatched, and developing only the following spring. In this case they evidently hatched in the autumn, early in September.

Probably the haunt of the parents at Llanelly is in the old quarry referred to. A bunch of eggs could very easily be carried into the house in some faggots, and there lie unheeded till hatched out, and then suddenly a "plague of Snakes" appears. From the fact that as many as twenty-two were taken in the one dwelling, this seems to have been the case, as it is unlikely that so many would have made their way into one house, unless born in it. Moreover, I am informed that all were about the same size, which further points to their origin being from one bunch of eggs. It is quite possible that the eggs were deposited by the parent behind the oven, or in a hole in the back wall, and there lay undisturbed during the period of development.

On taking down a further portion of the wall, no fewer than forty bundles of eggs were found, each bundle containing thirty eggs, out of each of which a young Ring-Snake was issuing; so that there were some twelve hundred of the reptiles in an area of a few feet (cf. letter to 'The Outlook,' vol. vi. p. 526).