SPORT OF BUTE. 99 



crouched noiselessly to the spot. The creature 

 was coiled up asleep, but the moment I raised 

 my stick it darted for the wall. I struck just as 

 its head entered the hole and stunned it. "When 

 carrying it home alive by the tail, it disgorged a 

 full-grown field-mouse. On telling some neigh- 

 bours what a capacious gorge this adder had, they 

 capped him with another killed on the opposite 

 coast of Morven the year before, of most prodi- 

 gious length and girth, and in its belly was a full- 

 grown rat ! As I could not at first swallow the rat 

 myself, I took the trouble to verify, as far as testi- 

 mony could verify, the gluttonous feat of this 

 python, and found I had been correctly informed. 

 A still more incredible story of a Mull adder I 

 give on my own authority. The reptile was bask- 

 ing close to a wall, when my son's tutor (now 

 minister of Kirkliston) threw a large stone, and 

 fairly halved it. The head and shoulders wriggled 

 into the wall, and he brought the tail to me. 

 Three days after he found the head half at the same 

 spot hale and hearty, and when attacked it hissed 

 and bit his stick fiercely. This adder was severed 

 about the centre, head and tail ends being of about 



