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NOTES TO THE 



can be found in his book, " A Mechanical Account of 1'oisons, by 

 llichard Mead, M.D., physician to His Majesty, 1748." A most 

 magnificent work has lately been published by my friend, Dr. 

 Fayrer, now in India with the Prince of Wales : it is " The Tha- 

 natophidia of India : being a Description of the Venomous Snakes 

 of the Indian Peninsula, with an Account of the Influence of 

 their Poison on Life, and a Series of Experiments " (J. and A. 

 Churchill, 'New Burlington Street). The coloured drawings of 

 the snakes by native artists are most beautiful and life-like. 



I regret that I have not space to describe here the Corondla 

 lewis, a snake exceedingly like a viper, but not poisonous. It 

 is found in the New Forest, but not at all commonly. It feeds 

 upon lizards. I have had several in my possession. 



How TO CATCH A VIPEK. Mr. Davy thus describes the modus 

 operandi : " I generally catches him with a forked stick ; I pins 

 him to the ground, then I squeezes his mouth sideways, and 

 scrapes or cuts his fangs out with a knife. I then scrapes out his 

 poison bag, and rinses out his mouth in the nearest water; I then 

 puts him in a bag. He will never open his rnouth again to bite 

 you any more. T used to find most of these gentlemen round by 

 chalk-pits near Guildford. So long as you gets these vipers short 

 up by neck they cannot harm you, though they start and swisli 

 their tails about like mad ; they are very dull biters on cold days, 

 but they fly through the grass of a hot day. I puts adders and 

 common snakes in a bag altogether. There is no sale for them in 

 London now only occasionally a gentleman or two might want 

 them. I know an "artist who used to keep four or five in a fern- 

 case to feed with half-grown mice. If they were not doctored well 

 they would dart at the glass. I was once bitten by a viper : I was 

 a beating for larvae, and did not see my gentleman, who was lying 

 on a chalk bank which I was climbing up from below. I never 

 saw him, so he catches the forefinger of my left hand. The bite 

 was a very sharp prick, like the bite of a mouse. I sucked it 

 for half an hour ; I felt pain next morning. It Avas sore and 

 painful for four or five days." 



Mr. Davy's men, as well as himself, have frequently found 

 young adders in lanes in chalky districts in various parts of 

 the country ; he has never seen or heard of any one who has 

 seen the viper swallow its young. He says, " I have had men 

 out daily for years in all parts of the country, and none of my 

 practical bird-catchers believe in it. The story of vipers swal- 

 lowing their young is all Old Mother HuHbard." 



My friend, Major Eogers, who has done so much to get tigers 

 destroyed in India, has shown me how to make a noose for 



