76 OUR REPTILES. 



with the help of our glasses."* Again adverting to 

 this, lest it should be considered that he favoured 

 the popular notion that the viper swallows its young 

 on the advent of danger, he adds, " There was little 

 room to suppose that this brood had ever been in 

 the open air before, and that they were taken in for 

 refuge at the mouth of the dam, when she perceived 

 that danger was approaching, because then probably 

 we should have found them somewhere in the neck, 

 and not in the abdomen." 



During the winter, vipers, snakes, and other 

 reptiles retire to some snug spot to hibernate. At 

 this period a company of vipers may sometimes be 

 found locked in each other's coils, in a hole at the 

 foot of a tree, or in some other out-of-the-way place. 

 Here they remain without food till the spring, when 

 they come out with the sunshine to enjoy them- 

 selves. During the summer, the "sloughing" 

 process takes place, once or oftener, according to 

 circumstances ; the skin becomes loosened, turned 

 back, and as the reptile glides amongst the grass its 

 old coat is slipped off and left behind. It is much 

 brighter in colour after this change than before. 



Does the Viper swallow its young ? — The belief 

 has a firm hold in the minds of many, that, on the 

 approach of danger, the young of the viper glide to 



* " Natural History of Selborne," Lett. xxxi. 



