172 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
those that do, a certain proportion would not stop to 
see what the adder was doing, much less about to do, 
but would leave that precise spot as quickly as pos- 
sible. Of the rest, some would kill the reptile at once, 
but in the majority of instances the adder would elude 
observation. Supposing that one or two fortunate 
individuals waited to observe the adder, and were 
rewarded by seeing the young come to the mother and 
duly disappear down her throat, and that they then 
killed the adder-mother (a fairly extensive supposi- 
tion), what would they do next? In nine cases out 
of ten the persons would be farmers or farm-labourers, 
or other persons workine on the land, with other 
things to think about than proving the adder-swallow- 
ing theory, which they have probably believed in ever 
since they could walk. The adder-mother, killed, 
would be thrown into the nearest hedve, possibly after 
entting her open and counting and smashing up the 
fs) 
young. At any rate this is the answer I always get 
from farmers and woodmen who say they have seen it, 
that they left the adder where they killed it, never 
thinking that the editor of the ‘ Field’ or any one else 
would be likely to give £5 to the person who brought 
the specimen to him. It simply strikes them as an 
occurrence that they have always known to happen : 
their fathers told them so, and at last they have seen 
it for themselves. That anybody should refuse to 
credit what they say on the matter is very surprising 
to them, and is accounted for by the ignorance of the 
