294 



BRITISH SERPENTS. 



I had captured some adders in a wood close to his 

 house, as he had never seen any there, although he 

 had lived there many years. The belief that the 

 adder -mother swallows her young is prevalent 



Fi<;. 47. — Male Adder (24 inches), Ewyas Harold, 

 Herefordshire. 



throughout the county, and I must have had the 

 incident described to me by quite fifty people who 

 say they witnessed it. But I am still waiting for 

 the specimen with the young in the gullet. 



But the ring- snake does occur in Hereford, more 

 especially in some of the large woods in the middle 



