78 OUR REPTILES. 



and we do so with as earnest a desire for truth as 

 the witnesses themselves, and to know that the 

 debate is closed for ever. 



J. H. Gurney, Esq., of Catton Hall, near Norwich, 

 well known as an ornithologist, and especially for 

 the splendid collection of Kaptorial Birds in the 

 Norwich Museum, which has been obtained chiefly 

 through his instrumentality, in the year 1863, com- 

 municated to the Zoologist the following instance, 

 told to him by a person in whose accuracy he had 

 the fullest reliance. " John Gralley saw a viper at 

 Swannington, in Norfolk, surrounded by several 

 young ones ; the parent reptile perceiving itself to 

 be observed, opened its mouth, and one of the young 

 ones immediately crept down its throat ; a second 

 followed, but after entering for about half its length, 

 wriggled out again, as though unable to accomplish 

 an entrance. Upon this Gralley killed and opened 

 the viper, and found in the gullet, immediately 

 behind the jaws, the young one which he had seen 

 enter, and close behind that a recently swallowed 

 mouse. Gralley was of opinion that the first young 

 viper which entered was unable to pass the mouse, 

 and that consequently there was not sufficient room 

 for the second young one, which endeavoured unsuc- 

 cessfully to follow in the wake of the first."* 



* The Zoologist, p. 8856, 



