THE ADDER. 87 



has to be placed mainly on what is found in the 

 stomach. The difficulty here is, that digestion is so 

 rapid that the most usual thing is to find nothing at 

 all. Moreover, the adder feeds at more or less long 

 intervals, and the only chance is to get it just after a 

 meal. Any bulky food contained in the throat or 

 stomach can be easily squeezed out without opening 

 the adder. Two years ago (June 1808) I captured an 

 adder in a grass-field on the banks of the Monnow at 

 Skenfrith (near Monmouth). I followed it across the 

 field for about 200 yards, watching its movements and 

 observing its rapidity of progression, which was that 

 of an ordinary walking -pace. On approaching the 

 hedge I secured the adder for fear it should escape me. 

 It was very full, and when I got home 1 squeezed the 

 contents of the gullet and stomach into a dissecting- 

 dish. The first thing to appear was a young water- 

 vole, quite perfect. This was followed by a second, 

 which showed signs of partial digestion. It looks as 

 if the adder had paid two visits to the water-voles. In 

 the illustration (p. 85) the water-vole on the left of the 

 picture is seen undigested, while that on the right is 

 partially absorbed. This indicates that the adder can 

 retain food in the oesophagus or gullet undigested till 

 it is required to be passed on into the stomach, and 

 explains how it is possible for frogs and toads to have 

 been rescued alive from the inside of adders, as is 

 related. Though generally described as being in the 

 stomach, more probably the frogs and toads were only 



