II 
HINTS TO ADDER - SEEKERS 
Ir has occurred to me that a few hints or wrinkles 
on the subject of adder-seeking might prove 
serviceable to some readers of this work, seeing 
that there are very many persons desirous of 
making the acquaintance of this rare and elusive 
reptile. They wish to know it—at a safe distance 
—in a state of Nature, in its own home, and have 
sought and have not found it. Quite frequently— 
about once or twice each week in summer—I am 
asked by some one for instructions in the matter. 
One of my sweetest-tempered and most bene- 
volent friends, who loves, he imagines, all things 
both great and small, pays the children of his 
village sixpence for every dead adder or grass- 
snake they bring him. He does not distinguish 
between the two ophidians. It is to be hoped that 
no such lover of God’s creatures, including His 
“wild wormes in woods,” will take advantage of 
these hints. Let him that finds an adder treat it 
properly, not without reverence, and his finding 
it will be to his gain in knowledge of that rare 
and personal kind which cannot be written or 
15 
