THK ADDER. 173 
listener. That the foregoing reasoning is in no way 
exaggerated, I can testify from numbers of instances 
in ny own experience. So that, whatever is thought 
about the truth or otherwise of the theory, it must be 
admitted that it is extremely difficult to get actual 
ocular demonstration. 
5. If the adder-mother does not swallow her young, 
what has taken place to deceive so many people ? 
It is supposed by some that the so-called cases of 
swallowing are really to be explained by people 
having killed the adder which was on the point of 
bringing forth, and that the young being fownd in the 
body in a fully developed state, were concluded to have 
been swallowed. It is quite likely that this is the 
explanation of some cases where the witnesses say 
that the youne were found swallowed after the adder 
had been killed—where the actual swallowing has not 
been seen—as the large size of the young would de- 
ceive any one who had not seen a litter at full time. 
I have had an adder broueht to me which was killed 
by a farmer by a blow from a stick, the result being 
that the young were protruding from the ruptured 
side of the belly. The farmer, who was not acquainted 
with the details of the adder’s anatomy, thought that 
the young had been swallowed, whereas they had 
never been born. No doubt many cases are to be 
thus explained, but there are others where the actual 
act of swallowing is said to have been witnessed that 
do not come under this category. 
