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REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS being their favourite food, but the poisonous snake is nowhere abundant. In some fifteen years of shooting and birds-nesting in North Berkshire I have never seen an adder. More are probably found near Highclere and round Windsor Forest than in any other parts of the county. Above Lambourn, on the north side, are two wild stretches of upland called 'Crow Down' and 'Worm Hill,' where I have seen slow-worms, and even a crow carrying one, but I have never seen an adder, or heard of any person or animal being bitten by one. 6. Smooth Snake. Coronella l<evis, Lac6p. This very interesting and local snake, which is mainly confined to the southern and sandy parts of Dorsetshire, Hampshire and Surrey, is believed to be now extinct in Berkshire, though twenty years ago it was not uncom- mon, near Wellington College. In Mr. G. Leighton's British Serpents (Blackwood and Sons, London) will be found an account of its haunts and habits near Wellington College by Mr. Bevir. Its food consists almost entirely of slow-worms and lizards. BATRACHIANS ECAUDATA 7. Common Frog. Rana temporaria, Linn. Abundant in all the valleys and especially by the old canal in the Vale of White Horse, where the water is in parts wholly covered with spawn in spring, and in the Kennet Valley, where water meadows are numer- ous. 8. Common Toad. JBufo vulgaris, Laur. Common everywhere, though the natter- jack toad is not found in the county. CAUDATA 9. Great Crested Newt. Molge cristata, Laur. A pond species, and not common. A few are found in one of the large ballast holes by the railway line near Steventon, and in some of the ponds in Windsor Great Park. 10. Common Smooth Newt. Molge vulgaris, Linn. Common both in ponds and canals, but not in the ponds on the downs or in the chalk streams. 139