served specimen, about 4 feet, taken in Norfolk.

The average length of measured is 24 inches

The Rev. M. C. Bird, of Stalham, writes to me: 'The viper is more common in this part of Norfolk than the ring snake.1 In fact, I have not seen one of the harmless species hereabouts at all. some score of vipers I have (adult), and I have seen a red variety, about 16 inches long, at Stalham, which was killed in the neighbourhood in the summer of 1889. A marshman friend of mine killed seven vipers in one day (April 10, 1900). One he killed on a previous day contained 25 eggs, and two killed the day before had 23 and 16 eggs respectively. These vipers specially frequent the dry marsh walls round the Broads, and are also fairly plentiful on the marshes adjoining the sandhills on the coast. They are much more conspicuous in spring and early summer than later, but I killed two as late as October 4 in 1900, when out shooting rabbits."—W. A. Nicholson (Hon. Sec. Norfolk Nat. Soc.), St Helen's Square, Norwich.

Note. Mr Bird's letter is valuable from three points of view: first, it records the small red viper in Norfolk; second, the number of eggs found in the females is unusually large; and thirdly, it indicates a somewhat late date of commencing hibernation in that locality, though it must be remembered that the autumn of 1900 was very warm.-Author.

1 See the Field,' 15th and 22nd June 1901.

Cambridgeshire.

I have been unable to get much information regarding the Ophidia in this county; but my friend Dr W. S. Syme, of Gamlingay, says it is for a very good reason-viz., that the reptiles are not there. He tells me that both adders and ring snakes are quite unknown in that part of Cambridgeshire, though both species are found in the eastern or Fen district. In the neighbourhood of Gamlingay he has not heard of any one seeing either species during the last twenty years.-Author.

"I once saw a ring snake at Wicken Fen which was quite 36 if not 40 inches in length, the longest I have ever observed." - Frank Bouskell, F.E.S., F.R.H.S., Market Bosworth.

"The ring snake is the most common in this county, sometimes growing to a length of 4 feet. The adder is very rarely seen."-Albert H. Waters, B.A. (Hon. Sec. Pract. Nat. Hist. Soc.)

Bedfordshire.

"The adder is the most common, and this species is rare and local, a few being taken from time to time on Rowney Warren, near Shefford, and occasionally elsewhere. Snakes are too rare in the county to give an estimate of their average lengths, and I have but one or two records of the ring snake being taken at all.

The smooth snake does not occur, as far as I know." -J. Steele Elliott, Hillcrest, Clent, Worcestershire.

Huntingdonshire.

The ring snake is the common snake of this county, but I have been unable to obtain any reliable figures as to its average length.

Captain J. A. Vipan tells me that the adder used to occur in Homle Fen, but he has not seen one there for a great many years, neither has he observed this species in any other locality in the county. There is no record of Coronella austriaca having occurred.— Author.

Northamptonshire.

"The ring snake is the most common snake in the county, averaging 35 inches in length. Adders are scarce, but used to be common at Brampton Wood, near Desborough. The keeper there tells me that he often killed them there when he first went to the wood, which at that time had been allowed to grow wild for some years; but for the last six years he has not seen one. I got a large ring snake from Milton Park, Peterborough, on June 30, 1898, measuring 45 inches, the largest I have seen. It was dropped by a heron, which was flying over some trees near their nesting-place. In this park ring snakes are very common."-Charles East Wright, Woodside, Kettering.

NORTH NORTHAMPTON.-" Between thirty and forty years ago the adder was very plentiful in a large wood in North Northamptonshire, near here, and is still found there, but in very reduced numbers. The ring snake is not common."-J. A. Vipan, Stibbington Hall, Wansford.

"For more than twenty years I was a constant observer of the reptiles of this county, and have had from 70 to 80 ring snakes in captivity and about a dozen adders. The ring snake is the more common of the two, and averages from 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches, though the old ones attain a greater length. The largest I have seen, which was killed by a boy near Stroud, measured 3 feet 10 inches when dead. I have had them both in and out of the egg, and reared one for its first year on tadpoles and young newts. I have had other ring snakes from the same locality measuring 3 feet 8 inches, 3 feet 7 inches, and 3 feet 6 inches, the two latter of which I captured on the same day. One of these threw up the fur and bones