WILD LIFE: FURRED AND FEATHERED. 57 



the reed-fringed pool, or runs here and there grunting and 

 squeaking. Like the moorhens, he would be less noisy 

 if he had his family with him ; just now he has little to 

 fear. 



And now a few words as to the reptiles we may possibly 

 get a sight of in our wanderings this month. You may be 

 shall I say fortunate or unfortunate enough (?) to come 

 across a viper the common viper or adder, which is the 

 only poisonous reptile of our country side. Its colour 

 varies much, but if the creature you take for one has a row 

 of zig-zag markings down the whole length of its back, there 

 will be no mistake about its identity. About the centre of 

 its head also you will note a clearly defined V-shaped dark 

 mark. I know personally very many, not usually cowards, 

 who love the country, yet whose walks are spoiled by a 

 terror of straying into its most charming nooks lest they get 

 bitten by a viper. Such an accident rarely happens; still 

 it is as well, if you are in search of the wild white violet and 

 the sweet primrose, to look round, if the spot you have 

 chosen be a grassy bank, warmed by the sun that comes out 

 on those days when blusterous March is going out meekly 

 like the proverbial lamb. If you do not happen to touch 

 the reptile with foot or hand as you stoop, he will never 

 harm you. The viper is useful in its way, not because it 

 still enables many a one to gain a little money by collecting 

 what they call " adder-ile," but on account of its great 

 proclivity for the young of mice, for which it hunts most 

 assiduously mice which, as many of them as are allowed 

 to grow, would not only rob the bees of honey, but kill and 

 eat up the bees themselves. 



