THE ADDER. 167 
satest, but where the instinct of the mother and the 
young themselves points to as the safest place. It is, 
of course, a truism to say that most animal mothers 
make some effort to protect their offspring, quite 
apart from the efficacy of that effort. The mother’s 
instinct is that the family are safer in her charge 
than when looking after themselves, and, as a rule, 
the young fall in with this view. It may or may 
not be the case that a dozen chickens would have a 
better chance of escaping a hawk by going in a 
dozen different directions; but the old hen does not 
think so, and prefers them under her wing, literally 
in this case [ do not know definitely that young 
adders are the food of any other animals in this 
country,” but in other lands they are eaten by large 
birds of prey, and the adder-mother’s instinct may 
remain even thus far west. This first objection is 
at any rate quite open to argument. 
2. There is not room for the young wm the supposed 
retreat.—lt will be admitted that if the young are 
swallowed the receptacle must be the csophagus or 
gullet. So that this objection may be stated in more 
definite words, thus: that the cubie capacity of the gullet 
is not sufficient to hold all the young ones in a litter. 
1 My friend the Rev. Maurice Bird says that a hen does call her 
chickens if in danger, but that they scatter. 
? Many animals—c.y., pheasants, owls, toads, pigs, &c.—are stated 
to swallow adders ; but I have not been able to get actual demon- 
stration of this in any case, so cannot speak from my own experience 
on the point. 
