T'he Natural History of Selborne 287 



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 a 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. 



