346 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
tents of the same nest. Although, as is well known, 
reptiles take a considerable time to “suck in” and 
swallow their prey, the birds must have become its 
victims at the same time,as the three were intact, 
with no appearance of assimilation or digestion having 
commenced. What surprises one is the remarkable 
powers of distension of the mouth and throat which 
makes it possible for an adder to swallow anything 
approaching to the size of a lark. 
It is now over twenty years since I recorded having 
witnessed an adder attempting to drag a grouse chick 
a few days old into a hole. It had seized the chick 
by the neck, and blood was squirting out at both 
sides of the reptile’s mouth, On another oceasion, 
when approaching a tuft of heather where a grey 
hen was sitting on her eggs, I found the bird evidently 
in great distress. On approaching she flew a short 
distance, when I espied an adder killing a newly 
hatched chick, while three others lay dead. 
Where grouse are numerous on a moor it is easy 
to see how an entire brood, when very young, may 
be killed and devoured by an adder. Fortunately 
reptiles do not require to feed often, or the destruction 
to young game would be incaleulable. 
Should any of your readers, in view of “ Eoin’s” 
letter, record the measurements of adders, it would 
be interesting, indeed, if they would also dissect them 
and mention on what they had been feeding —TI am, 
&e., Tom SPEEDY. 
