VARIOUS INCIDENTS RECORDED. 221 
swimming across a pond. Once, up at Heath Pool, 
when accompanied by a black retriever, I saw a snake 
swimming and threw my stick at it. It went some 
distance beyond the snake, and the dog plunged into 
the water to fetch back the stick. Zn route he came 
across the snake, which stiffened itself as the doe 
approached. The latter, mistaking the snake for 
the stick, snapped at it, and then shook its head in 
disgust. I think he must have killed the reptile, 
J. Bevir, M.A., Wellington 
for it did not reappear.” 
College. 
Adder-springing.—“I was never faced by an 
adder, neither has one ever attempted to spring at 
me, although I have killed several. One of my 
workmen told me one sprang at him as high as his 
waist, but he managed to dodge it, and it just missed 
him. <A keeper tells me he once struck at an adder, 
which had just previously killed a favourite dog, and 
the blow missed, and the reptile arched itself up, 
resting on its tail and neck only, apparently about 
to spring at him. He cut it down, however, before 
it did so. 
“T have twice had an adder face my dog, but on 
each occasion I shot the reptile’s head off. Twice in 
my experience I have had an adder in my house in 
the winter, when living in a farmhouse. We supposed 
them to have been brought in with the firewood. They 
were somewhat torpid, and easily killed. 
