SCOTLAND. 359 



The above copious extracts are from Mr Evans's 

 paper, in addition to which he has sent me the 

 following notes : — 



"Adders are still common in the neighbourhood 

 of Aberfoyle, S.-W. Perthshire, where I met with 

 quite a number in April and May in 1896. I 

 measured a few as follows : female 20 inches ; male 

 20 J inches ; female 22 inches (the two last killed 

 at one blow) ; female 20f inches. In May 1898 a 

 specimen said to be 26 inches in length was captured 

 by the members of the Scottish Natural History 

 Society on Auchencorth Moor." — William Evans, 

 F.RS.E., 38 Morningside Park, Edinburgh. 



" The adder occurs more or less in all the western 

 and south-western counties of Scotland, both on the 

 mainland and on the islands. It is, I believe, be- 

 coming more numerous in unfrequented places, but 

 on the islands which are pretty well populated it 

 is scarcer, and in some probably quite extinct. I 

 should say the adder is very numerous in Argyll- 

 shire and Dumbartonshire and in Arran, common 

 in Stirlingshire, Eenfrew, and Ayr, occasional in 

 Bute and Lanarkshire. This species, however, is 

 so exceedingly shy that unless one devoted an 

 entire hot summer to it no reliable knowledge of 

 its numbers and habits could be got, and this no- 

 body has done. The adder frequently swims across 

 straits and creeks in Loch Lomond, going from 



