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. It is 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 



eff"ects 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 



