ADDER 
threatens. It will not attack unless escape is impossible. 
It is an adept at taking cover, and loves nothing better 
than to sun itself close by a heather or fern patch in which 
it can hide if occasion demands. Most of the stories 
one hears, and often from accredited witnesses, of Adders 
springing and darting through the air when about to strike 
a person, savour more of imagination than truth. Itis an 
earth-creature, keeping exclusively to ground, and by 
its very structure is unable to perform the prodigious 
feats with which it has been credited. When in repose 
the Adder assumes a coiled position, but raises its head 
and neck when preparing to strike. On the vexed 
question of whether or not this animal swallows its young 
in the time of danger we cannot hope to enter here. 
Whilst it is possible that this event can and may happen, 
at present the matter is not proven, or rather is not 
accepted as a scientific fact. I have myself made a 
practise of asking for information on this point from 
most of the field naturalists I have met in this country 
during the last forty years, and only on one occasion 
have I received a reply in the affirmative. Neither is it 
possible to enter into a detailed description of the ill 
effects suffered by human beings from poisoning by the 
Adder, or the most useful remedies to apply. Cases 
of Snake-poisoning in our own island are very rare, but 
old Brusher Mills, the Snake-catcher in the New Forest, 
swore by an ointment, or oil, he made from fat obtained 
from the Adder’s own body, as a most successful antidote. 
Another contentious matter has reference to the sup- 
11 
