A Snake in Kensington Gardens | Nature
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ABSTRACT I WAS considerably surprised this evening at finding the lifeless body of a snake about one hundred yards to the south-east of Kensington Palace. A policeman informed me that he had
killed it there last Thursday as it was rapidly moving over the ground. The head and neck had been utterly destroyed, most likely by stampings of the policeman's foot, but the
remainder of the body was perfect. In length it was about twenty inches, the body, from the thickness of a little finger, gently tapering to a tail ending in a fine point. Regular scales,
brownish-black in colour, clothed the back, the scales along the sides being yellowish-green. A distinct fringe, or prolonged fin, stiffly standing erect, of about one-quarter of an inch in
height, ran down the centre of the back, in colour the same as the rest of the body in that region. I trust this description may enable some of your readers learned in snakes to identify the
species. Then I would ask, Is this animal a native of these parts, or had it been introduced, or had this specimen most likely escaped from captivity to meet with its untimely end? Access
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AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * 11, Sheffield Gardens, Kensington, W. J. HARRIS STONE Authors * J. HARRIS STONE View author publications You can also search for this author
inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE STONE, J. A Snake in Kensington Gardens. _Nature_ 22, 193 (1880).
https://doi.org/10.1038/022193d0 Download citation * Issue Date: 01 July 1880 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/022193d0 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able
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