THE ADDER. 183 



5. "I just wish to say that three or four different 

 persons, in describing to me what they have seen, 

 have been unanimous in saying that the old one 

 raised her head slightly (that would be just clear of 

 the ground) and the young ones jumped or sprang 

 down the throat. They tell me that the young did not 

 glide down on the level of the ground. This striking 

 unanimous and quite independent testimony seems to 

 me to be somewhat significant. I may mention that 

 my brother-in-law tells me he had a correspondence 

 on this subject some years ago in ' Science Gossip,' in 

 which he mentioned my viper - shooting experience. 

 I don't know the year, and I never saw the corre- 

 spondence." — Eythorne, 9th August 1900. 



I owe many other very interesting letters on the 

 habits of adders to Mr Jacob, some of which are 

 quoted elsewhere, but these are the most important 

 on the swallowing question. In the summer of 1900 

 I asked for information on the point from eye- 

 witnesses, by means of a letter inserted in the press 

 of Hereford and Monmouth, in both of which localities 

 adders are common. In response to my appeal I 

 received a large number of replies by letter, and other 

 people made statements to me afterwards which I 

 wrote down at the time. Some of these letters and 

 statements I now append. The letters are quoted 

 verbatim, the statements in the words used in writing 

 them down at the time they were made. 



