CLASS REPTILIA. 85 



water may account for the numbers found in the latter 

 localities. It swims well, and has been known to catch and 

 eat fish. Some years since, an instance was recorded in The 

 Chelmsford Chronicle of the capture, in a pond at the Turrets, 

 Rayleigh, of one which had a gold fish in its mouth. The 

 same fact is recorded in The Field (June 25th, 1870, p. 536). 

 The following records speak clearly of its abundance in the 

 marshy districts of Essex. Christopher Parsons mentions(ZooL ) 

 1845, p. 1027) shooting nine out of a cluster at Shoebury. Mr. 

 E. A. Fitch says (Essex Nat.,vo\. i., p. 1 1 3) that at Saltcote Farm, 

 Goldhanger, in September, about 1882, Mr. Wakelin shot into a 

 black object as large as a football, which he discovered to be 

 formed of intertwined snakes. Out of the mass, he killed twenty 

 individuals at least. At Moon's Farm, Ashingdon (Essex 

 Nat., vol. iii., p. 170), in two days, August I5th and i6th, 1889, 

 three hundred and three snakes were killed out of a heap of 

 " cavings," a local name for the short straws, broken ears, and 

 rough chaff formed in threshing corn. 



Family VIPERID^E. 



Genus VlPERA, Laur. 



Vipera berus, Linn. ADDER OR VIPER. 



This is common in woods throughout Essex, but most 

 frequent on the marshes. It lives principally on Field Mice. 

 I do not think it is so plentiful as it used to be before the 

 large hedgerows were reduced in size. In my earlier days, 

 it was not unfrequent for the stockman to report that he had 

 a sheep or a cow bitten by an adder. To the sheep its bite 

 was rarely fatal, and then only when respiration was interfered 

 with by the swelling produced. In the cow, I never knew it 

 to be fatal, but the supply of milk ceased for some days, and 

 considerable constitutional disturbances resulted. Occasion- 

 ally, during the shooting season, dogs were "stung," but these 



