THE ADDER. 173 



listener. That the foregoing reasoning is in no way 

 exaggerated, I can testify from numbers of instances 

 in my own experience. So that, whatever is thought 

 about the truth or otherwise of the theory, it must be 

 admitted that it is extremely difficult to get actual 

 ocular demonstration. 



5. If the adder- mother does not swallow her young, 

 what has taken place to deceive so many people ? 

 It is supposed by some that the so-called cases of 

 swallowing are really to be explained by people 

 having killed the adder which was on the point of 

 bringing forth, and that the young being found in the 

 hody in a fully developed state, were concluded to have 

 been swallowed. It is quite likely that this is the 

 explanation of some cases where the witnesses say 

 that the young were found sivallowed after the adder 

 had been killed — where the actual swallowing has not 

 been seen — as the large size of the young would de- 

 ceive any one who had not seen a litter at full time. 

 I have had an adder brought to me which was killed 

 by a farmer by a blow from a stick, the result being 

 that the young were protruding from the ruptured 

 side of the belly. The farmer, who was not acquainted 

 witli the details of the adder's anatomy, thought that 

 the young had been swallowed, whereas they had 

 never been born. No doubt many cases are to be 

 thus explained, but there are others where the actual 

 act of swallowing is said to have been witnessed that 

 do not come under this category. 



