OF SERPENTS, 



They take up their Winter-Quarters in Cavern?, hollow 

 Places, Burrows, Rocks, old Hedges, and under the Roots of 

 Vegetables, efpecially the Birch, others fay Beech-Trees, whicia 

 were confecrated by the Pagans to the fupreme Numen. 



I N thefe lonefome Habitations they repofe themfelves during 

 the Winter, in a kind of lleepy State, as half dead, with ope?i 

 Eyes *. In this Solitude they lie dormant, indulg'd with a little 

 humid Air, till the Sun, by its Entrance into the northern Con- 

 ilellations, reflores them to the adive Life j without fome Air 

 they could not live. Mr. Boyle made the Experiment, by putting 

 Vipers into the exhaufled Receiver, which foon died upon pump- 

 ing out the Air. 



I T argues no little Penetration, that they know when and 

 how to fhelter themfelves In Places of Safety in all Seafons ; and 

 what is yet more altoniihing, is, that they live there fo many 

 Months without Food and without Adion ; and when releafed 

 from their hybernal Confinement, how foon do they find out 

 their appointed Food ? Taken in this light they are not fingular y 

 for 'tis believed, there are other Animals that pafs the Winter- 

 Seafon in a ftate of Indolence and Inadlvity, as Cuckows and 

 Swallows, making way by their Retreat for Woodcocks and 

 Fieldfeirs, which vllit us In Winter, and then return northwards : 

 They are faid to breed in colder Countries, as Norway^ KiiJJia^ 

 Sweden, and the IJlands of Orcades, the mofl northern Parts of 

 Scotland y which Iflands were formerly in polTeffion of the Nor- 

 wegians, and given and annex'd to Scotland by Chriftiern I. King 

 of Denmark and Norway, on the Marriage of his Daughter Mar- 

 garet ^ with "James III. King of Scotland, about the Year 1474. 



I T is probable, that when thefe northern Countries are buried In 

 Snow, and their Rivers are frozen up, thefe Birds take their Flight 

 hither, and fuch like Places, where they have Accefs to Water, ^c. 

 Butas to Cuckows and Swallows, as Intimated above, 'tis generally 

 allow'd that they fleep In Winter, having, as 'tis faid, been found 

 in hollow Trees and Caverns. Nor is this at all unlikely; tho* 

 on the other hand, I can fee no Abfurdlty In fuppofing that thefe 

 fhould go upon a Summer, as the other do upon a Winter Pil- 

 grimage ; that thefe purfue a leffer Heat, as well as the others fly 

 from- a greater Cold. Yea, Vegetables are faid io Jleep in Winter^ 



and 



♦ A^ertis Oiulis. Conrad» Gefner, pag. 3. ^e Ser^. 



