464 Puff Adder,— Curious Instinet of the common Hog. 
PUFF ADDER. 
The venom, of.this. reptile is said to be very fatal, taking effect 
so rapidly as, to leaye the, person who has the mistor tune to be 
bitten, no chance of saving his life but by instantly cutting out 
the flesh surrounding, the wound.  ¢¢ Although,” says Mr. Bur- 
chell, “I have often. met with this serpent, yet, happily, no op- 
portunity occurred of witnessing the consequences of its bite; 
but from the universal dread i in which it is held, I have no doubt 
of. its being one of the most vénomous of Southern Africa. ‘There 
is a peculiarity. which renders it more dangerous, and which 
ought to be known by every person liable to fall in with it. Un- 
like the generality of snakes, which make a spring, or dart for- 
ward, . when irritated, the Puff Adder, it is said, throws itself 
backward; so that those who should be ignorant of ‘this fact 
would place themselves in the very direction of death, while 
imagining that by so doing they were escaping the danger. The 
natives, by keeping always in front, are enabled to destroy it 
without much risk.” One taken by Mr. B,. measured) in ‘the 
thickest part seven inches in circumference, and three feet seven 
inches in length; and, by its disproportionate thickness, may 
easily be distinguished from all the others of. this country. « T 
have,” says he, ‘seen one about four feet and a half long, which, 
probably, i is the greatest size’ it ever attains, \'The general co- 
lour is,a dusky brown, but varied with black and cream-coloured 
transverse stripes, in shapes of which it is not easy to. convey an 
idea by mere description.” 
CURIOUS INSTINCT OF THE COMMON HoG (Sus Scrofa, Linn.). 
It is. customary. with farmers who reside in the thinly settled 
tracts of the United, States, to suffer their hogs to run at large. 
These animals feed, “Upgn. acorns, which are very abundant in our 
extensive forests, and in this situation they often become wild 
and ferocious. A gentleman of my acquaintance, while travel- 
ling some years ago, through the wilds of Vermont, perceived at 
a little distance for him a herd. of swine, aut his attention 
was arrested by the agitation they exhibited. He quickly per- 
ceived a number of young pigs in the centre of the herd, and that 
the hogs. were arranged about them in a conical figure, having 
their heads all turned outwards. At the apex of ‘this singular 
cone, a huge. boar, had placed himself, who, from his size, seemed 
to be the master of the herd. The traveller now observed that 
a famished.wolf was attempting by various manoenvres to seize 
one of the pigs inthe middle; but wherever he made an attack, 
the ,huge boar at the apex of the cone presented himself—the 
hogs dexterously arranging themselves on each side of him, so 
as 
