1 902 Editorial 8 1 



ago. After a reference to the work of the club in con- 

 nection with the investigation of Ambresbury Banks, the 

 exploration of Dene Holes, and other matters, the writer 

 concludes thus : " Institutions of this kind do no small 

 service to the country. How often, in past times, have 

 valuable finds been lost because nobody particularly cared 

 about them, and the discoverer was ignorant of their value. 

 Now, with members in every district, — all, at anyrate, 

 having some general knowledge, — nothing is likely to be 

 lost. Everything of interest is almost sure to be noted 

 and preserved, and not the least of the good work done by 

 such clubs is the effort to protect the rarer plants and 

 animals." 



\^/ \^/ \^^ \4/ \|/ 



/^ /^ /^ /|V /^ 



In view of the correspondence which we publish in this 

 issue, and of a note by that excellent observer Mr Eagle 

 Clarke in the last number of 'Annals of Scottish Natural 

 History,' we ought probably to confess that we are wrong 

 in our belief that the adder does not habitually take to 

 water. The incident quoted by Mr Bevir did not take 

 place in this country, but at the same time there is no 

 other serpent in Scandinavia the markings of which could 

 be mistaken for those of the adder. There are two possible 

 fallacies, however, in the story. One Mr Bevir himself 

 points out — namely, that the adder may have fallen off 

 one of the rocks into the water. The second, and in our 

 opinion the more likely, is suggested by G. A. Boulenger, 

 and it is that some person may have killed the adder and 

 thrown it into the water, where it was swallowed by the 

 trout. Mr Eagle Clarke's case is absolutely definite. He 

 saw the adder swimming, caught it, and killed it, so that 

 there is no possible doubt that in this instance an adder 

 had taken to water. Mr Thompson, too, relates an incident 

 which points to a similar occurrence. We can only say, 

 under these circumstances, that probably the adder does 

 take to water sometimes, and express the regret that during 

 a long adder-hunting career we have never been fortunate 

 enough to meet an adder either in the water or apparently 

 likely to enter that element. That experience seems to 



