over in winter, during which season they probably undergo hibernation in holes near the banks. Several of the older naturalists describe ‘water snakes’ in words which leave us no doubt as to the _numbers_, though of their name we cannot be so certain. Carver in 1796 mentioned some small islands near the western end of Lake Erie, so infested with snakes that it was dangerous to land upon them. It is impossible that any place can produce a greater number of all kinds of snakes, particularly the ‘water snake,’ than this. He says: ‘The lake is covered near the banks of the islands with the large pond lily, the leaves of which lie on the surface of the water so thick as to cover it entirely for many acres together, and on each of these lay wreaths of water snakes, amounting to myriads, basking in the sun.’ A sight of the last century this. I have passed over that part of Lake Erie and through the Detroit river, and remember the islands and the water-lilies and other attractive objects, but ‘wreaths of water snakes’ were not of these. Lawson, too, can assure us of their habitat, but not their name, and his account is of worth chiefly to verify their swarming numbers. It is possible that some of those which he describes are now extinct or very rare. ‘Of water Snakes there are four sorts. The first is of the Horn Snake’s Colour, though less.’ (This might be the young of the ‘water moccasin,’ _Cenchris_, or _Trigonoceph. piscivorus_.) ‘The next is a very long Snake, differing in Colour, and will make nothing to swim over a River a League wide. They hang upon Birches and other Trees by the Water Side. I had the Fortune once to have one of them leap into my Boat as I was going up a narrow River. The Boat was full of Mats, which I was glad to take out and so get rid of him. They are reckoned poisonous. A third is much of an English Adder Colour, but always frequents the Salts, and lies under the drift Seaweed, where they are in Abundance, and are accounted mischievous when they bite. The last is of a sooty, black Colour, and frequents Ponds and Ditches. What his Qualities are, I cannot tell.’ Catesby is responsible for having called _Tropidonotus fasciatus_ ‘the brown water viper,’ a stumbling-block to many ever since, much confusion existing between this and the true ‘water viper,’ the dangerous moccasin snake. Occasionally they are very dark. They are rather thick and viperish-looking as well, but are perfectly harmless.