242 
them. One story is told of a dog that 
was bitten in the tongue, which became so 
swollen that it had almost choked the poor 
animal, when the owner snatched the adder, 
and, as he informed me, hung it in front 
of the fire, caught the fat dripping from 
it, and appled it to the dog’s tongue. 
Instantly the dog was cured, suffering no 
more ill effects. The fat of the adder is 
said to be a certaim cure for its bite. How 
true this story is I do not know. Measuring 
the adder when dead I found its length 
to be exactly twenty-one inches, and its 
greatest diameter three-quarters of an inch. 
The striking feature of this species is the 
V-shaped mark on its head, from which its 
name is taken. The colouring on the back 
was black and dirty 
white; underneath it 
was pure black. On 
the whole the photo- 
graph gives one a 
elimpse of nature which 
few have an opportunity 
The photo- 
graph of a grass snake 
is given to show the 
distinctive markings in 
the two species.” 
of seeing. 
a 
Battery Q.-M. SERGT. 
FE. SHEPHERD 
Regimental writes to us A STRANGE 
UG itil regard 
to a paragraph on page 39 of this 
volume, in which wtreference was made 
to a particularly savage Blesbok at the 
Zoo, an animal, it was remarked, which 
is yvarely seen in Gardens. Our 
correspondent, who kindly sends the ac- 
companying picture, says that the blesbok 
there shown has in battery 
since March, 1900, when it was captured 
on a drive near Meyerton, ‘Transvaal, 
after its mother had been shot. It is 
now about three and a half years old, 
quite docile, playful, and very intelligent. 
It has been quartered in England for 
about a year, and the climate to 
suit it. 
our 
been his 
seems 
Animal Life 
In the letter which he sent with the photo- 
graph reproduced on page 244, 
Mr. G. H. Parsons says: “I 
am sending you a photograph, 
for publication mm ANIMAL Lirs, of a re- 
markable Shire Mare which might interest 
your She is a dark-brown mare, 
owned by Mr. John Lawton, Flash Farm, 
Barthomley, Cheshire, and is in her thirtieth 
year, while the filly foal by her side is the 
twenty-fourth foal she has bred. This is 
one of the most remarkable instances of 
longevity and prolificacy in a mare that I 
have ever met with, and it is also worthy 
of note that the mare has been doing light 
farm work up to quite recently. he filly 
is a daughter of Mr. A. Nicholson’s cele- 
brated stallion ‘Sandy- 
croft Sort,’ and judging 
from her looks she bids 
fair to worthily uphold 
the record of her illus- 
trious dam.” 
A Prolific 
Mare. 
readers. 
D/O 
AN anonymous but valued 
The Origin ©! Fespon- 
of the dent, whose 
HIRO ROSNER raetatiorn we 
appreciate very highly, 
has sent us the follow- 
ing note for publication: 
“Tt is generally believed 
by zoologists that the 
ordinary horses of 
Western Hurope—the ‘cold-blooded’ breeds, 
as they are called by the Germans—are 
descended from the fossil horse, whose 
remains are so common in the prehistoric 
and other superficial deposits of both this 
country and the Continent. These pre- 
historic horses, as we know both from their 
fossilised remains and from the rude draw- 
ings left by thew prehistoric masters, were, 
for the most part at any rate, rather small 
or medium-sized animals with large hairy 
heads and shaggy manes and tails. They 
appear, in fact, to have been very like the 
now extinct tarpan of the Kirghiz steppes, 
and also resembled in some degree the wild 
ponies of Mongolia. 
FRIENDSHIP. 
