204 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
beer eC Ber uch oe le 
TO THE SAME, 
SELBORNE, Afgrdl 29th, 1776. 
DEAR SIR,—On August the 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper, 
which seemed very heavy and bloated, as it lay in the grass basking 
in the sun. When we came tocut it up, we found that the abdomen 
was crowded with young, fifteen in number ; the shortest of which 
measured full seven inches, and were about the size of full-grown 
earth-worms. This little fry issued into the world with the true 
viper-spirit about them, showing great alertness as soon as dis- 
engaged from the belly of the dam: they twisted and wriggled 
about, and set themselves up, and gaped very wide when touched 
with a stick, showing manifest tokens of menace and defiance, 
though as yet they had no manner of fangs that we could find, even 
with the help of our glasses. 
To a thinking mind nothing is more wonderful than that early 
instinct which impresses young animals with a notion of the situa- 
tion of their natural weapons, and of using them properly in their 
own defence, even before those weapons subsist or are formed. 
Thus a young cock will spar at his adversary before his spurs 
are grown; and a calf or a lamb will push with their heads 
before their horns are sprouted. In the same manner did these 
young adders attempt to bite before their fangs were in being. 
The dam however was furnished with very formidable ones, which 
we lifted up (for they fold down when not used) and cut them off 
with the point of our scissors. 
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.* 
* See Letter XVII., First Series, to Mr. Pennant, p. 50. which should be turned to and 
read along with this. 
