THE VIPER, OR ADDER. 77 



accounts as the following : " Walking in an 

 orchard near Tyneham House, in Dorsetshire, I 

 came upon an old adder basking in the sun, with 

 her young around her ; she was lying on some 

 grass that had been long cut, and had become 

 smooth and bleached by exposure to the weather. 

 Alarmed by my approach, I distinctly saw the 

 young ones run down their mother' s throat. At 

 that time I had never heard of the controversy 

 respecting the fact, otherwise I should have been 

 more anxious to have killed the adder, to further 

 prove the case." * Nothing can well be more 

 positive, clear, definite, and many would think 

 decisive, than the foregoing ; yet, so sceptical are 

 some men on this subject, that they still dare to 

 doubt whether there may not be some error in 

 the observation. Let us advert to other wit- 

 nesses, and evidence still more complete, and 

 we do so with as earnest a desire for truth as 

 the witnesses themselves, and to know that the 

 debate is closed for ever. 



J. H. Grurney, Esq., of Catton Hall, near Nor- 

 wich, well known as an ornithologist, and espe- 

 cially for the splendid collection of Raptorial 

 Birds in the Norwich Museum, which has been 

 obtained chiefly through his instrumentality, in 



'"* Rev. H. Bond, South Petherton, Somerset, in Zoologist, 

 p. 7278. 



