72 VIPERS. 



I liave fomid, on examiiia jion, that it is perfectly innocuous. 

 A u'iighbouring yeoman (to whom I am indebted for some 

 good hints) killed and opened a female viper about the 27th 

 of May : he found her filled with a chain of eleven eggs, 

 about the size of those of a blackbird ; but none of them 

 were advanced so far towards a state of maturity as to con- 

 tain any rudiments of young. Though they are oviparous, 

 yet they are viviparous also, hatching their young within 

 their bellies, and then bringing them forth. Whereas snakes 

 lay chains of eggs every summer in my melon beds, in spite 

 of all that my people can do to prevent them ; which eggs 

 do not hatch till the spring following, as I have often expe- 

 rienced. Several intelligent folks assure me that they have 

 seen the viper open her mouth and admit her helpless young 

 down her throat on sudden surprises, just as the female 

 opossum does her brood into the pouch under her belly, 

 upon the like emergencies ; and yet the London viper- 

 catchers insist on it to Mr. Barrington, that no such thing 

 ever happens.* The serpent kind eat, I believe, but once in 



■would suddenly seize the slug by the middle, in the same manner that a 

 ferret or dog will generally take a rat by the loins ; it would then hold it thus 

 sometimes for more than a minute, when it would pass its prey through its 

 jaws and swallow the slug head foremost. It refused the larger slugs, and 

 would not touch either young frogs or mice. Snakes kept in the same cage 

 took both frogs and mice. The blind worm avoided the water: the snakes, 

 on the contrary, coiled themselves in the pan containing water, which was put 

 into the cage, and appeared to delight in it. The blind worm was a remarkably 

 fine one, measuring fifteen inches in length. It cast its slough while in my 

 keeping. The skin came off in separate pieces, the largest of which was two 

 inches in length, splitting first on the belly, and the peeling on the head being 

 completed the last. After the skin was cast the colour of the reptile was 

 much lighter than it had before been. 



I had for the first time, while this blind worm was in my custody, an oppor- 

 tunity of witnessing the power which slugs have of suspending themselves by a 

 thread. They availed themselves of it in escaping from the cage of the reptile. 

 The cage was on a shelf four feet six inches from the floor, and, with the aid 

 of the glutinous filament which they exuded, the slugs lowered themselves 

 from it to the ground. — G. D. 



* Having taken much pains to ascertain the fact of young vipers entering 

 the mouth of the mother, I can now have little doubt but that such is the 

 case, after the evidence of persons who assured me they had seen it. I also 

 found young vipers in the stomach of the mother, of a much larger size than 

 they would be when first ready to be excluded. Amongst others, a viper- 

 caacher on the Brighton downs told me that he had often witnessed the 

 fact. — Ed. 



