154 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



distribution, in the absence of any particular diversities 

 of climate, soil, or food - supply, I am unable even to 

 guess at. 



These reptiles will come out of their hibernating 

 quarters if the winter sun should shine warmly enough 

 to reach them, but inasmuch as they are generally beyond 

 the reach of transient moods of temperature, their appear- 

 ance is sufficiently rare to be notable. Even so, I have 

 notes of adders coming forth to bask in the sun in all of 

 the winter months, such appearances being least in Decem- 

 ber. On 1 2th March 1900 I nearly stepped upon a lively 

 individual sunning himself on the Moyle hill in Colvend on 

 a patch of moss, completely surrounded by snow, which at 

 the place was about an inch deep. By the middle of April 

 most adders are in full activity for the season. One hears, 

 sometimes, extraordinary stories of writhing masses of them 

 seen at this period on some sunny knoll. " Scores " are 

 sometimes reported, and we are shown these interesting 

 blue beads the so-called adder beads of a prehistoric 

 origin, that are picked up on rare occasions, as the products 

 of such an orgie by this assemblage of serpents on a knowe. 

 The imaginations of a certain type of folks, influenced 

 doubtless by some innate idea of the ancient enmity betwixt 

 snakes and humanity, is on such occasions apt to deviate 

 from the strictness of arithmetical accuracy in estimating 

 the number of individuals in the wriggling group. I have 

 never actually counted more than nine in such spring 

 gatherings, although I have no doubt one or two others 

 had escaped before I could count them all, for they scatter 

 in every direction at once when you come upon them. 



Of what may be termed comparative statistics in regard 

 to adders I can give two examples. One is by the late 

 Mr. Wilkin, long tenant of Tinwald Downs in Dumfries- 

 shire. When he reclaimed some sixty acres of Lochar 

 Moss an account was kept of the number of adders killed. 

 The total was 2400, showing an average of forty per acre. 

 The reclamations in question extended over several years in 

 the early part of the sixties. The other instance refers to 

 Strongcastle, a farm in the Glenkens of Kirkcudbrightshire. 

 Mr. James Barbour, who, after a long tenancy, left there last 



