Class III. VIPER. 



certain ; but we are well allured that this difco- 

 very is far from a recent one : 



Ut ajjidens hnplumihus pullis avis 

 Set pentium allapfus timet *. 



Thus, for its young the anxious bird 

 The gliding ferpent fears. 



The viper is capable of fupporting very long 

 abftinence, it being known that fome have been 

 kept in a box fix months without food, yet did 

 not abate of their vivacity. They feed only a 

 fmall part of the year, but never during their con- 

 finement •, for if mice, their favorite diet, mould 

 at that time be thrown into their box, tho' they 

 will kill, yet they never will eat them. 



The poifon decreafes in violence in proportion 

 to the length of their confinement : it muft be alfo 

 added, the virtues of its flefh (whatfoever they be) 

 are at the fame time confiderably leffened. 



Thefe animals, when at liberty, remain torpid 

 throughout the winter ; yet when confined have 

 never been obferved to take their annual repofe. 



The method of catching them is by putting a 

 cleft flick on or near their head \ after which they 

 are feized by the tail, and put infcantly into a bag. 



The viper-catchers are very frequently bit by 

 them in the purfuit of their bufinefs, yet we very 



9 Her. Epod. I. 



rarely 



29 



