NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 135 



MORAL. 



( lootl gentlemen all, both great folks and small, 

 This hint accept kindly from me, 

 We want evidence clear ! don't believe all you hear, 

 And not more than half that you see, see, see 



And not more than half that you see. 



HBNKY LEE. 



Holland, the keeper of the snakes, tells me that vipers under 

 his charge at the Zoological Gardens often have young in 

 their "lass dens. The vipers that have had young are the 

 Itussell viper, black water viper, and the common viper. In 

 no instances have any of these vipers attempted to swallow their 

 young alive. Snakes frequently swallow each other when they 

 have had hold of the same frog, and the swallowee has to be 

 shaken out of the gullet of the swallower. Mr. Bartlett once 

 made a boa-constrictor take a full meal in a very ingenious way. 

 Boas, as is well known, will never seize an animal which is 

 dead. The boa in question had not fed for many weeks. At 

 last he seized a live rabbit, killed it by crushing, and swallowed 

 it. Just as the rabbit was disappearing down the snake's mouth, 

 Mr. Bartlett tied another dead rabbit to the legs of the one 

 being swallowed, then another on to that. The snake must 

 have thought that he had got hold of a tremendous long rabbit. 



In the summer of 1875, my friend Mr. Burr forwarded 

 me a small viper alive, with the mouse he disgorged when 

 captured. His under-keeper caught him, and observing that 

 he was very large in the middle, thought he had some ailment, 



SKIN OK VIl'KK. 



but on handling him he brought up the mouse, which is very 

 much larger in girth than he is. The viper measures about 

 ten inches, and is about the size of a common Severn lamprey. 

 The mouse was a field-mouse, and about the size of a three- 



