186 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
one of the under-keepers at Kentchurch Court for 
Colonel Scudamore. I killed the adder at the time. 
We saw one of the little ones come out of her mouth, 
and it got away in the brambles. The others we 
smashed to bits, with the old one. You can rely on 
this to be true.’-—John Went, 1 Park Crescent, Barry, 
nr. Cardiff, July 3, 1900. 
Letter 4+—<I have had several proofs lately of 
Pelias berus swallowing the young on the approach of 
danger. Several years have elapsed since I saw a case 
myself. Lord Cawdor’s woodman told me on Friday 
that on one occasion he saw an adder with a lot of 
young ones playing about her, but when they noticed 
him they crawled into her mouth. He killed her 
before she had time to swallow the last, which he 
found in her mouth. On opening the adder he found 
eight young ones, about 2$ to 3 inches long. This 
was seen by an under-woodman as well. An educated 
lady told me a few days ago in Pembrokeshire that 
she had seen an adder deliberately swallow her young 
on her approach. A gentleman farmer saw the same 
thing, and on opening the adder found mine young 
ones, which had been playing about her a few seconds 
before.’—( Rev.) D. H. Davies, the Vicarage, Cenarth, 
Caermarthenshire. 
Letter 5.—“Seeing your letter in the ‘ Hereford 
Times’ of June 30 about adders, | think it may 
