498 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. . 
with. Warm sunny banks on the outskirts of woods and 
heaths, and sunny slopes covered with stones or low bushes, 
are the spots in which to look for it. 
The south side of Blackford Hill, in the vicinity of the 
quarry, is a well-known habitat of the Slow-worm, in which 
it has, to my own knowledge, been frequently seen and 
captured during the last twenty-five years. A fine specimen, 
now in the Museum of Science and Art, was captured in 
this locality by one of the quarrymen in the summer of 
1890; another which I have seen was killed at the same 
place in September 1893; and still later, namely, on 27th 
May 1894, a male 13} inches long was brought to me alive. 
Salisbury Crags are mentioned as a habitat by Stark in his 
“Picture of Edinburgh,” and it is gratifying to be able to 
state that the creature still exists there, a specimen having 
been obtained so recently as 1895. A couple were also 
taken this spring on the Braid Hills. 
Mr A. B. Herbert, who has seen more of them on Blackford 
Hill than any other person I know, writes me as follows :— 
“Tt is now about ten years since we were in the habit of 
searching for Slow-worms on Blackford Hill. We were 
seldom unsuccessful in finding two or three in the course 
of about two hours’ search among the large loose stones. 
We turned them into our garden in Strathearn Road, 
where they lived in holes in the wall, coming out on 
bright sunny days to creep about the flower borders. We 
invariably found numbers of ants under the same stones, 
and therefore had a strong impression that these formed 
their food.” 
About the year 1844 my father captured a Slow-worm on 
or at the base of the eastern Pentlands—in the neighbour- 
hood of Swanston or Dreghorn, I believe—and kept it alive 
for a considerable time. Although very well acquainted 
with the Pentlands and the lands in their immediate vicinity, 
I have never myself met. with the animal there, nor have 
I been able to hear of another undoubted occurrence. 
It is not improbable, however, that some of the “ Adders” 
reported to me as having formerly occurred in the vicinity 
of the western portions of the range, were of the present 
