270 
The snake may be kept in a large glass covered box, or 
a vivarium, which should be examined carefully, in order that 
no crevices or projections may remain to injure him in his 
efforts to escape. Snakes vary much in disposition, but all of 
them cherish in confinement their natural love of freedom. The 
floor of their cage should be strewed with small pebbles, or 
in default of these, with fine gravel-stones; sand or earth | 
would stop their nostrils, and bare metal or wood is uncom- 
fortable to them. A vessel of water should be introduced, and 
changed daily, and a piece of charcoal kept in the water will 
maintain its purity. 
The female snake does not incubate her eggs, but still 
she appears to have some sort of feeling of protection towards 
them, for after any of my snakes had laid eggs they were 
always singularly fierce and intractable, hissing violently when 
the litter in their cage was disturbed, and one of them even 
struck at my hand when her eggs were removed. 
The Viper or Adder (Peleas Berus) is fairly plentiful on 
the Cotteswolds. It is generally about two feet in length. 
The largest I have seen was 263 inches long. A writer to 
The Field mentioned one which measured 27 inches when dead, 
but dead snakes stretch considerably. 
The ground-colour varies in all shades between slaty white 
and warm red-brown. Down the centre of the back runs 
a zigzag black line, and there are other black markings on 
the sides. The viper is often found in close proximity to the 
common snake, a circumstance which I first discovered under 
rather alarming circumstances, when, at the age of ten years, 
far away from any house, and alone, I had a narrow escape 
from a bite. 
The food of the viper consists principally of mice, but Dr 
Henry Bird, whose name may perhaps recall pleasant memories 
to some of the members present, informs me that he has often 
found in the stomachs of vipers dissected by him the remains 
of the common black dew-snail (Arion). 
With regard to the popular belief that the female viper 
will swallow her young, in order to protect them, I can add a 
