2j6 The Natural History of Selborne 



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 fur- 

 nished 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. 



