CLASS REPTILIA.
85
water may account for the numbers found in the latter
localities. It swims well, and has been known to catch and
eat fish. Some years since, an instance was recorded in The
Chelmsford Chronicle of the capture, in a pond at the Turrets,
Rayleigh, of one which had a gold fish in its mouth. The
same fact is recorded in The Field (June 25th, 1870, p. 536).
The following records speak clearly of its abundance in the
marshy districts of Essex. Christopher Parsons mentions (Zool.,
1845, p. 1027) shooting nine out of a cluster at Shoebury. Mr.
E. A. Fitch says (Essex Nat., vol. i., p. 113) that at Saltcote Farm,
Goldhanger, in September, about 1882, Mr. Wakelin shot into a
black object as large as a football, which he discovered to be
formed of intertwined snakes. Out of the mass,he killed twenty
individuals at least. At Moon's Farm, Ashingdon (Essex
Nat., vol. iii., p. 170), in two days, August 15th and 16th, 1889,
three hundred and three snakes were killed out of a heap of
" cavings," a local name for the short straws, broken ears, and
rough chaff formed in threshing corn.
Family VIPERIDAE.
Genus Vipera, Laur.
Vipera berus, Linn. Adder or Viper.
This is common in woods throughout Essex, but most
frequent on the marshes. It lives principally on Field Mice.
I do not think it is so plentiful as it used to be before the
large hedgerows were reduced in size. In my earlier days,
it was not unfrequent for the stockman to report that he had
a sheep or a cow bitten by an adder. To the sheep its bite
was rarely fatal, and then only when respiration was interfered
with by the swelling produced. In the cow, I never knew it
to be fatal, but the supply of milk ceased for some days, and
considerable constitutional disturbances resulted. Occasion-
ally, during the shooting season, dogs were "stung," but these