152 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



contained the body of an Adder, but whether the fish swal- 

 lowed the reptile while the latter was swimming, or picked 

 up its body from the bottom, is of course an open question. 



Colour. The general ground-colour of the majority of 

 the specimens I have seen has been brown in various shades. 

 Red is also a common colour, and all the small, and pre- 

 sumably young. Adders I have come across have been red, 

 but I have no evidence as to the " Small Red Adder " forming 

 a distinct species or even variety. Melanism is frequent. 

 On 25th April of this year I found a specimen almost com- 

 pletely black, in which the markings were quite obscured. 

 Albinism seems rare. I have only heard of two instances 

 in which it was partially developed, the underparts being of 

 a milky white. In April 1900, in Glen Strath Farrer, I 

 killed a very beautiful Adder, in which the ground-colour 

 was distinctly blue. 



Size. I have frequently met with Adders less than 

 fifteen inches long. On 24th April of this year I found and 

 measured a lively young specimen, seven inches long, and 

 bright red in colour. 



Of the many Adders that I have seen and measured, 

 none has exceeded two feet six inches in length, and I doubt 

 whether they often reach three feet in this country. Mr. D. 

 Campbell tells me that the largest Adder he ever met with 

 measured an inch or two over three feet after the head had 

 been cut off. 



Animals preying upon Adders. Mr. Campbell has seen 

 the Common Buzzard preying upon an Adder, and has found 

 their bodies in the dens of foxes. One of the larger Gulls 



o 



probably L. fuscus was fired at when carrying something 

 in its bill. The prey was dropped, and proved to be an 

 Adder. 



The distribution of the Adder on the mainland seems to 

 be curiously local. During many summers' residence in 

 Mid -Strathspey I hardly saw more than two or three 

 specimens, but have found it extremely abundant in all the 

 valleys of East Inverness north of the Great Glen, and of 

 Easter Ross. On the west coasts of those two counties it 

 is plentiful, and also throughout West Sutherland as far 

 north as Cape Wrath. 



