88 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



an inky black, on a straw-coloured ground. On my 

 third successful visit to the spot I was agreeably sur- 

 prised to find that my adder had not been widowed 

 by some fatal accident, nor left by her wandering 

 mate to spend the summer alone ; for now there were 

 two on the one platform, slumbering peacefully side 

 by side. The new-comer, the male, was a couple of 

 inches shorter and a good deal slimmer than his 

 mate, and differed in colour; the zigzag mark was 

 intensely black, as in the other, but the ground colour 

 was a beautiful copper red ; he was, I think, the 

 handsomest red adder I have seen. 



On my subsequent visits to the spot I found some- 

 times one and sometimes both; and I observed them 

 a good deal at different distances. One way was to 

 look at them from a distance of fifteen to twenty 

 yards through a binocular magnifying nine diameters, 

 which produced in me the fascinating illusion of 

 being in the presence of venomous serpents of a nobler 

 size than we have in this country. The glasses were 

 for pleasure only. When I watched them for profit 

 with my unaided eyes, I found it most convenient to 

 stand at a distance of three or four yards ; but often 

 I moved cautiously up to the raised platform they 

 reposed on, until, by bending a little forward, I could 

 look directly down upon them. 



When we first catch sight of an adder lying at rest 

 in the sun, it strikes us as being fast asleep, so motion- 

 less is it; but that it ever does really sleep with the 



