oo 
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BRITISH SERPENTS. 
may, no doubt, now and again manage to establish 
itself in a way, but only, [ fear, for a comparatively 
brief period at the best. 
“Two examples, which we may be sure were 
escapes or their direct descendants, have .been re- 
cently captured within the suburbs of Edinburgh— 
one on a footpath by a wall near Haymarket in July 
1892, and the other in a villa garden at the Grange 
in September 1893. The first was a variety of the 
common snake, the second a typical specimen. (Other 
specimens have since occurred in the city.) 
“« The Adder.—The adder or viper is confined to the 
outskirts of our district, and even there it is very 
local, and far from common till we reach the highland 
country beyond Stirling on the one hand, or proceed 
well into the Lammermoors on the other. I killed 
two a number of years ago near Johnscleugh in East 
Lothian. No doubt the adder still exists in a few 
localities at the foot of the Pentlands, and also 
towards the Moorfoot Hills. But its numbers must 
be very limited, for { have wandered a great deal 
all over the ground during the last thirty years 
without seeing a trace of one. | have, however, been 
able to trace them on both sides of the Pentlands. 
Mr Thomas Gray, Braidwood, Temple, informs me 
that in his young days they were not uncommon 
in certain localities in the southern or moorland 
portion of Mid-Calder parish. Crosswoodhill Moss 
was a favourite habitat.” 
