202 FAUNA OF SHROPSHIRE. 



the tail never leaves the ground. At the moment when it 

 springs, the mouth is widely distended and the fangs 

 standing out from the jaw ready to plunge into the enemy. 

 This is effected by striking downward with the upper 

 jaw, while the entrance of the poison fangs into the wound 

 is assisted by the closing upwards of the lower jaw. 

 There is a poison-bag at the base of each fang, and the 

 pressure causes some of the venom to pass through the 

 tubular fang into the wound. Sometimes the Viper bites 

 without first coiling and springing. The wound shows 

 as two small punctures in the skin of the victim. After 

 biting, the Viper immediately withdraws the fangs and 

 coils ready to strike again if necessary ; but that rarely 

 happens. Mr. Dumville Lees writes that he has seen 

 Vipers several times on the Moelydd, near Oswestry. 

 One of them bit a dog of his in the mouth ; the head 

 swelled very much, and he was so ill he could hardly be 

 got home; ammonia was applied externally and internally 

 and by next morning he was nearly well. Rev. J. T. Lea 

 says that a dog of his that was bitten on the leg, did 

 not recover for six weeks ; the remedy used being ash- 

 buds and skim milk. That the Viper does not always 

 use its fangs when biting is proved by the following 

 curious incident : Mr. Ramsbotham, of Meole Hall, 

 Shrewsbury, has a Viper (taken in 1889), which was put 

 into an empty bottle and there left for nearly twenty-four 

 hours ; upon the bottle being filled with spirit, a full- 

 grown Lizard (Lacerta vivipara), crawled out of the Viper's 

 mouth! This proves three things: (i) that a Viper 

 sometimes eats lizards, though its food usually consists 

 of mice and frogs, (2) that it sometimes swallows its 

 prey without using its poison fangs ; and (3) that a 



