31 OCTOBER 1941, Page 10

Snakes' Eggs A land girl, engaged in the now ladylike

occupation of pitch- ing " muck " (as Surtees' Pigg always called it) into a farm-cart, disclosed what she took at first to be some sort of fungus or mushroom. Then it appeared that the whitish objects' had no stalks, and on close inspection they were found to be snakes' eggs. It goes almost without saying that the species was the grass snake, the only tolerably common snake in most parts of England. Some of these eggs, nearly hatched by the heat of the manure, were posted to me, and each contained a living snake about 61- inches in length. It is surprising that animals, to which warmth is so necessary, should hatch so late as mid-October.