REPTILIA AND AMPHIBIANS OF THE CAIRN DISTRICT. 81 
ut, it may remain there when it appears as though it had been 
living in that situation. 
5. Palmated Newt (Triton palmipes).—Said to occur in the 
higher reaches of the parish, as on the hills and moors. It is 
characterised by: Ist, the tail is suddenly truncate before the 
apex, and terminating in a slender filament three lines in length ; 
2nd, hind feet perfectly palmate, all the toes united by a mem- 
brane; 3rd, the dorsal crest, small and simple; 4th, size much 
smaller than the smooth newt. 
6. Adder (Pelias berus), Scot.— Nether,’’ Anglo-Saxon— 
“Neddre.’’—The adder, or common viper, is the only 
poisonous snake to be found in Britain. It is fairly 
common in this parish, but is gradually getting scarcer. My 
friends have often killed them when grouse shooting in August, 
and last summer they found one on the road between Dunscore 
and Moniaive, and therefore far from its habitat. Its bite is 
dangerous to small children, sheep, and sometimes dogs, but I 
have rarely heard of any loss among larger stock from that cause 
in this district. It feeds a good deal on mice, and is therefore 
of some use to the farmer, but its loathsome appearance and 
poisonous bite make most of us dread rather than cultivate its 
acquaintance. (There was a fatal case of a bite in a child 
reported in the Medical Journal two months back.) 
7. Snake (Tropidonetus natrix).—This is the common grass 
snake of England found about gardens and manure heaps, but 
I have never heard of this snake being found in this district or 
neighbourhood. The smooth snake (Coronella loevis) was said 
to have been found near Dumfries on one occasion. 
8. Common Toad (Bufo vulgaris).—This somewhat slug- 
gish and repulsive-looking creature is very common, and may be 
met with in any garden or by the roadside almost any summer 
evening after rain. It is considered useful for keeping down 
slugs in the garden, and therefore rather encouraged and pro- 
tected by some gardeners; but I doubt if it prefers such to a 
good earthworm or some of the insect tribe. In any case it is 
quite harmless. It frequents sluggish ponds during the breeding 
season, when it deposits its eggs in long stringy lines of a yard 
or more, the young after passing through the various tadpole 
Stages forsaking the water in autumn. In winter it hibernates 
