432 SNAKES. 



do well enough, though many exceptions exist. The grand 

 distinction of 'viper' as applied to those snakes which 

 produce live young, was adopted when snakes were first 

 observed and described by classic writers. 



' Vipers alone are viviparous,' wrote Aristotle. ' Some- 

 times the little vipers eat through their mother and come 

 forth. The viper brings forth one at a time in one day, but 

 she brings forth more than twenty little vipers. Other ser- 

 pents produce their eggs externally, and these eggs are 

 connected with each other like the necklaces of women. 

 But when they bring forth, they deposit their eggs in the 

 earth, and tJiere incubate tJieni. These eggs they disclose 

 the following year.' We do not quote the above as all fact, 

 but rather to show how very much there has been to Jinlearn 

 since Aristotle was accepted as an authority. The shadow 

 of truth and the mention of a possible fact as an invariable 

 rule are dangerous mistakes, for, as we have already shown, 

 where a snake is concerned, one can rarely feel safe in 

 asserting anything as positive. It is not impossible that, 

 owing to disease or accident, some gravid viper may have 

 been so wounded as to enable her young to make their 

 debut through her ruptured side. Such an occurrence has 

 been seen in our own time. Aristotle or his authority may 

 even have witnessed such an accident, and recorded it under 

 the supposition that it was normal. In whatever way the 

 error may have originated, it is only one out of many that 

 are propagated even to the present day by the uninformed. 



At the moment of writing, we read in one of our first-class 

 ' dailies,' alluding to a brood of young vipers lately born 

 at the Zoological Gardens : ' The young viper comes into 



