THE VIPER, OR ADDER. 77 



their parent for protection, and that she opens her 

 mouth, and, one by one, they pass down her throat, 

 where they rest in security till the danger is past. 

 To prove a negative is always a difficult task, but 

 the effort to remove a prejudice must be even greater 

 to be successful. Clergymen, naturalists, men of 

 science and repute, in common with those who make 

 no profession of learning, have combined in this 

 belief, and to them we are indebted for many such 

 accounts as the following : — " Walking in an orchard 

 near Tyneham House, in Dorsetshire, I came upon 

 an old adder basking in the sun, with her young 

 around her ; she was lying on some grass that had 

 been long cut, and had become smooth and bleached 

 by exposure to the weather. Alarmed by my ap- 

 proach, I distinctly saw the young ones run down 

 their mother's throat. At that time I had never 

 heard of the controversy respecting the fact, other- 

 wise I should have been more anxious to have 

 killed the adder, to further prove the case."* 

 Nothing can well be more positive, clear, definite, 

 and many would think decisive, than the foregoing ; 

 yet so sceptical are some men on this subject, that 

 they still dare to doubt whether there may not be 

 some error in the observation. Let us advert to 

 other witnesses, and evidence still more complete, 



Kev. H. Bond, South Petherton, Somerset, in Zoologist, 

 p. 7278. 



