Our reptiles and batrachians; a plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs and tortoises indigenous to Great Britain (1893) (14780794722)

Identifier: ourreptilesbat00cook (find matches)
Title: Our reptiles and batrachians; a plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs and tortoises indigenous to Great Britain
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Cooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt), b. 1825
Subjects: Reptiles Amphibians
Publisher: London, W. H. Allen & co., limited
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



Text Appearing Before Image:
(Coronella lecvis. Boie.) There can be little doubt that this reptile has beenoccasionally found in this country for many years,although it is only recently that it has received thename to which it appears to be entitled, and there-with its true place in our reptile fauna. It is some-where about half a century since Mr. Simmonscaught a curious little snake near Dumfries, whichappeared to differ so much from the common ringedsnake that Sowerby figured it in his British Mis-cellany,* and called it the Dumfries snake (ColuberDumfrisiensis). After this, the account and a copyof the figure appeared in Loudons Magazine ofNatural History.t When Professor Bell publishedhis account of the British Eeptiles, he gave theseparticulars, but at the same time expressed a doubt * Sowerbys Miscellanies, iii., t. 3. f Vol. II., p. 438.
Text Appearing After Image:
THE SMOOTH SNAKE. 55 whether the specimen was not an immature one ofthe common species.* As the specimen is not inexistence, it cannot be positively affirmed what itwas; but, from the description, there is reason tobelieve it was really the first recorded capture of thesnake whose name stands at the head of this chap-ter. It was about three or four inches in length,of a pale-brown colour, with pairs of reddish-brownstripes from side to side, over the back, somewhatzig-zag, with intervening spots on the sides. Theabdominal plates were 162, those under the tailabout 80. The most remarkable peculiaritymentioned, however, is, that the scales are extremelysimple, not carinated. Towards the close of 1859 the Hon. ArthurKussell sent to the British Museum a female speci-men of the Smooth Snake (plate 4), which was takenby a resident near the flagstaff at Bournemouth,Hampshire, and Dr. Gray communicated a notice ofthe fact to the Zoologist (p. 6731). Supplementaryto this notice, the editor add