230 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



Mr. RAY to Dr. ROBINSON. 



SIR, Your last letter, of March 3d, expresses such 

 excess of kindness, as one that did not well know you to 

 be alien from all flattery or dissimulation would hardly 

 think you wrote your own sense, especially seeing no 

 merit of the object could induce you. I cannot but thank 

 you for your great though undeserved (that I say not ill- 

 placed) affection, which must needs enkindle an answer- 

 able flame of reciprocal love in the breast of any man 

 that hath the least sense of gratitude or spark of good 

 nature in him. 



Of English Serpents, I never knew nor heard of above 

 three kinds ; and though one cannot be sure of a nega- 

 tive, yet I verily believe there are no more : those are, 



1 . Natrix Torquata, or the Snake, so called because it 

 hath a pale yellow spot or streak on each side of its neck, 

 though not encompassing it. 



2. Viper a, or the Adder. I am well assured that 

 Viper and Adder are two names of the same species, 

 having taken exact notice of the viper beyond sea, and 

 our adder at home. The differences between the Adder 

 and the Snake are, that the former is much shorter for 

 its bigness, especially his tail below the vent ; that he is 

 marked on the back with black lines or spots, which the 

 snake wants ; that his belly is blackish and of one colour, 

 whereas the snake's is particoloured, of a pale yellow and 

 blue. That the adder never grows to the bigness that I 

 have seen some snakes attain to; and lastly, that the 

 adder is viviparous, as I myself can testify, having taken 

 seven young ones out of the belly of a female, come to 

 their full perfection, as big almost as some women's little 

 finger. 



3. Cecilia, the Blind- worm, or Slow- worm, which 

 again are two names of the same sort of animal. It is 

 much less than the adder, and streaked with blackish lines 



