86 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. vnJ 



bitten by adders. The swelling is very severe, and only reduced 

 after several hours' rubbing with oil and laudanum. A retriever 

 of mine, having been bitten by an adder, conceived the most 

 deadly hatred against them ever after, and killed a great number 

 of them without being again bitten ; his method was to snap 

 quickly at the adder, biting it in two almost instantaneously, and 

 before the reptile could retaliate. A favourite amusement of 

 this dog, when he was in Sussex with me some time afterwards, 

 used to be hunting the hedgerows for snakes and adders. He 

 made a most marked distinction between the two, killing the 

 former quietly and without hurry, but whenever he found an 

 adder, he darted on it with a perfect frenzy of rage, at the same 

 time always managing to escape the fangs of the venomous 

 reptile, quickly as it can use them. The poisonous teeth of 

 the adder greatly resemble the talons of a cat in shape, and 

 can be raised or laid flat on the jaw according to the wish of 

 their owner ; indeed, the fangs of the adder, which are hollow 

 throughout, are only raised when he is angry, and in self- 

 defence. The common snake, which is quite harmless, has no 

 such teeth. There are stories among the peasants, of adders 

 being seen in Darnaway Forest, of great size and length, measur- 

 ing five or six feet, but I do not believe that there are any larger 

 than the usual size. 



I have never seen the Anguis fragilis, or blind-worm, as it 

 is called, but once in this country, though I am told it is not un- 

 common ; a man brought me one last year which he had found 

 floating down the river after a flood, as if swept off some rock by 

 the sudden rise of the water. I mentioned the circumstance to 

 some of my acquaintance, but could find no one who had either 

 seen or heard of such a creature in this country. This one was 

 alive when brought to me, but had received a cut which nearly 

 divided its body in two, so that it did not long survive. 



Amongst the rare feathered visitors to these woods, I forgot 

 to mention the spotted woodpecker,^ Picus meditis, which bird 

 I killed in Inverness-shire ; I was attracted to the spot, where 

 he was clinging to the topmost shoot of a larch-tree, by hearing 

 his strange harsh cry. 



' This was probably Picus major, the greater spotted woodpecker (see Newton's 

 Yarrell, ii. p. 484). It has even been known to breed in limited numbers in North- 

 East Scotland (Gray). 



