271 
fraction of evidence upon that disputed point. I know a person, 
filling an official position of trust, who declares that he has 
seen a viper do this, and I have no doubt that what he relates 
is true. 
There is another belief, more absurd than this, that if a 
viper be roasted alive legs will grow from him; and I know 
a person who tried the cruel experiment, of course without 
success. This fallacy may be the result of a very rudimentary 
knowledge of the anatomy of a snake. 
The viper may be found a little later in the year than the 
snake, and appears to be able to resist a somewhat greater 
degree of cold. The smell of the viper is peculiar. I often 
discover vipers by smelling them at the distance of some yards. 
The best way to capture a viper is to seize him by the tail, 
of course taking great care to do this when the creature is 
endeavouring to glide away, and not when he is coiled. If 
carried to a pathway he may be deposited there, and kept in 
his place by lifting him with a stick when he tries to crawl 
away. 
Let no one attempt to seize a warm viper by the neck, as in 
that endeavour he will place himself entirely at the mercy of 
the reptile. 
Dr Bird informs me that the light coloured vipers are 
males, and that the brown ones are females. I can give no 
personal experience of the sexual differences of this or any 
other of my subjects, as I have never wilfully destroyed any 
reptile, and few of them have died in my keeping. 
I have always found light coloured vipers near or in stone 
walls, and brown ones upon dead leaves or the litter of wood- 
land undergrowth. 
The viper refuses food in confinement, but all of mine 
(and I have kept eight of them) drank water every day, though 
they would not touch a mouse. The viper is naturally timid, 
very timid, but the worm will turn, and this poor reptile, set 
by nature as a guardian of trees and plants against the smaller 
rodents and mice, will strike a blow for liberty and life when 
threatened with the loss of both. The viper can never be 
