LXXIII.] OF SELBORNE. 2C5 



LETTER LXXIII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARR1XGTON. 



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 snn. When we came to cut 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 earthworms. This little fry issued into 

 the world with the true viper spirit about them, showing great 

 alertness as soon as disengaged 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 the notion 

 of the situation 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. 



SELBORNE, April 29, 1776. 



