Reptiles and Batrachians of the Edinburgh District, 499 
species." Mr Scot Skirving writes me that he remembers 
seeing a snake-like reptile which could be no other than a 
Slow-worm, at Bilston, near Rosslyn, many years ago. 
On the Fife side of the Forth it seems to be fully as rare 
as in the Lothians, a specimen from Aberdour, preserved in 
the Edinburgh Museum, being the only example I have 
myself seen from that quarter. From several sources, 
however, I learn that it has long been known as an 
inhabitant of the woods between Burntisland and Aberdour : 
one seen above the railway by Mr F. S. Douglas, St 
Andrews, in August 1889, is the latest that has come to 
my knowledge. So far as Mr W. Berwick, Stravithie, and 
Mr W. Berry, Tayfield, know, it has not been observed 
in the eastern part of the county. 
The Rev. Andrew Baird, in his statistical account of the 
parishes of Cockburnspath and Oldcambus (1834), speaks of 
the Blind-worm as being occasionally “observed in the 
heaths and upland coppices ;” and Dr Hardy of Oldcambus, in 
a letter tome dated 22nd February 1893, says it is “common 
here from Grant’s House to the Pease Bridge.” There is 
reason to believe it also inhabits the woods about Presmennan 
Lake (see p. 508). On the Lammermoors, where it is 
known as the “Silver Adder,’ it appears to be looked upon 
as a rarity. 
In the more highland parts of the valley above Stirling, 
its numbers naturally increase; but accurate information on 
the point is difficult to obtain, owing to the fact that few of 
the inhabitants distinguish it from the adder. Towards the 
end of April 1892, I captured a large female on the edge of 
the common, on which the Callander golf course was then 
situated, a couple of miles or so to the east of the town. 
This specimen, and several others obtained a week later on 
the wooded banks of Loch Tay were kept as pets by my 
children for a considerable time, one of them finally making 
its escape in our garden at Morningside. The vicinity of 
1 Since the above was written I have been informed by Mr James Taylor, 
Annandale Street, Edinburgh, that he has seen a specimen which was 
captured at the foot of the western Pentlands (north side) within the last 
three or four years, 
