THE ADDER IN SOLWAY 159 



Leighton speaks of I have met with some half-dozen times. 

 It is a peculiarly agile creature when in this dress, or it may 

 be that it only appears so from some ocular illusion con- 

 nected with its bright polished colour. I have never seen 

 an individual of this mahogany-coloured variety longer than 

 15 inches. One such was given me in June iSSi that had 

 been caught by the late William Lennon the entomologist. I 

 kept it alive for about three months in a glass enclosure, when 

 it died, having faded considerably in brightness. It was a 

 particularly vicious viper, and would coil up and strike out 

 on the slightest provocation. Here let me say that I seldom 

 pass an adder without catching and examining it. There is 

 neither difficulty nor danger in doing so, if one is quick 

 enough with eye and hand to note the exact moment to 

 grip the reptile just behind the head. Then it can be 

 examined at leisure and flung down again when done with. 



The size to which this species will grow is a vexed 

 question with some. First and last I have seen and handled 

 many hundreds, and the very largest of them is only 24^- 

 inches in total length. 



Their food is sufficiently varied. Probably nothing in 

 the shape of frogs, mice, voles, shrews or birds of con- 

 venient size, comes amiss. I have taken all the animals 

 named from their stomachs ; also nestlings of grouse, part- 

 ridges, skylarks, yellow hammers, and robins. In October 

 1889 a certain German vendor of ice-cream, then resident 

 in Dumfries, who occasionally varied his calling by going 

 bird-catching, told me of an incident that happened to him. 

 The Teuton was catching bullfinches at Dalscairth, and had, 

 after the usual and approved fashion, left his call-bird, and 

 gone off a little distance to allow the wild birds to approach. 

 His attention was soon attracted by the terrified flutterings 

 of his call-bird, and on hastily going back to see what was 

 wrong, he found a big adder making a strenuous effort to 

 get into the cage. I shall never forget the tones of great 

 satisfaction in which the aforesaid alien told me how he 

 " smashed dot schnake." 



An adder readily takes to the water when disturbed, 

 and I have seen them do so repeatedly in the case of small 

 streams a few feet across. At the west side of Lochaber in 



