THE ADDER. 185 
molished. This exceeded my comprehension. I sue- 
ceeded in killing it, and from legendary remembrance 
IT put one foot on its tail, and with the other T pushed 
up the body of the viper, and the whole seven fled out. 
I succeeded in killing four of these little ones; the 
others escaped in the heather. I am quite convinced 
they do swallow them, and I grieve I did not attempt 
KE. Slann, 
the further elucidation to me a mystery.” 
30 (Queen Anne’s Gate, London, July 2, 1900. 
Letter 3.—* Seeing a few lines in the ‘ Hereford 
Times’ of Saturday last about adders swallowing their 
young, I for one have seen it, and I will tell you 
where. It was not far from where you are living. 
About half a mile from Pontrilas station there is a 
farm called Penlan, just above the distillery works. 
Three hundred yards from the barn at that farm there 
used to be some rough brambles, just outside the 
Benath Wood. There was another person with me, 
but at present I have forgotten who it was. Anyhow, 
the old adder was a large one, very dark. I was very 
near putting my foot on her. She at once jumped 
right at me, and threw a lot of something out of her 
mouth on my clothes. I retreated back some paces 
to look for a stick or stone, and I returned back, and 
then she ‘blowed’ at me again. I saw two or three 
young ones go down her throat, about 4 or 5 inches 
long, and I noticed that they were very dark and 
about the size of a large worm. I was at that time 
