172 BRITISH SEHPENTS. 



those that do, a certain proportion would not stop to 

 see what the adder was doing, much less about to do, 

 but would leave that precise spot as quickly as pos- 

 sible. Of the rest, some would kill the reptile at once, 

 but in the majority of instances the adder would elude 

 observation. Supposing that one or two fortunate 

 individuals waited to observe the adder, and were 

 rewarded by seeing the young come to the mother and 

 duly disappear down her throat, and that they then 

 killed the adder -mother (a fairly extensive supposi- 

 tion), what would they do next ? In nine cases out 

 of ten the persons would be farmers or farm-labourers, 

 or other persons working on the land, with other 

 things to think about than proving the adder-swallow- 

 ing theory, which they have probably believed in ever 

 since they could walk. The adder - mother, killed, 

 would be thrown into the nearest hedge, possibly after 

 cutting her open and counting and smashing up the 

 young. At any rate this is the answer I always get 

 from farmers and woodmen who say they have seen it, 

 that they left the adder where they killed it, never 

 thinking that the editor of the ' Field ' or any one else 

 would be likely to give £5 to the person who brought 

 the specimen to him. It simply strikes them as an 

 occurrence that they have always known to happen : 

 their fathers told them so, and at last they have seen 

 it for themselves. That anybody should refuse to 

 credit what they say on the matter is very surprising 

 to them, and is accounted for by the ignorance of the 



