[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS the largest of all English serpents, sometimes exceeding four feet in length. The colour of the body is variegated with yellow, green, white, and regular spots of brown and black. They seem to enjoy themselves when basking in the sun, at the foot of an old wall, as if consciously exposing the beauty of their versicolor scales to the rays of light. This animal is perfectly innoxious, although many reports have been circulated and believed to the contrary; it feeds on frogs, worms, mice, insects, and others, and passes the greatest part of the winter in a state of torpidity. The Snake of warmer countries is not so harmless as that of this island, as will be easily perceived by what will follow.
