THE ADDER. 167 



safest, but where the instinct of the mother and the 

 young themselves points to as the safest place. It is, 

 of course, a truism to say that most animal mothers 

 make some effort to protect their offspring, quite 

 apart from the efficacy of that effort. The mother's 

 instinct is that the family are safer in her charge 

 than when looking after themselves, and, as a rule, 

 the young fall in with this view. It may or may 

 not be the case that a dozen chickens would have a 

 better chance of escaping a hawk by going in a 

 dozen different directions ; but the old hen does not 

 think so, and prefers them under her wing, literally 

 in this case. 1 I do not know definitely that young 

 adders are the food of any other animals in this 

 country, 2 but in other lands they are eaten by large 

 birds of prey, and the adder -mother's instinct may 

 remain even thus far west. This first objection is 

 at any rate quite open to argument. 



2. There is not room for the young in the supposed 

 retreat. — It will be admitted that if the young are 

 swallowed the receptacle must be the oesophagus or 

 gullet. So that this objection may be stated in more 

 definite words, thus : that the cubic capacity of the gullet 

 is not sufficient to hold all the young ones in a litter. 



1 My friend the Rev. Maurice Bird says that a hen does call her 

 chickens if in danger, but that they scatter. 



2 Many animals — e.g., pheasants, owls, toads, pigs, &c. — are stated 

 to swallow adders ; but I have not been able to get actual demon- 

 stration of this in any case, so cannot speak from my own experience 

 on the point. 



