THE SERPENT. 



419 



seldom grows to a greater length than two 

 feet ; though sometimes they are found above 

 three. The ground colour of their bodies is a 

 dirty yellow ; that of the female is deeper. 

 The back is marked the whole length with a 

 series of rhomboid black spots, touching each 

 other at the points ; the sides with triangular 

 ones ; the belly entirely black. It is chiefly 

 distinguished from the common black snake by 

 the colour, which in the latter is more beauti- 



the upper jaw, instead of the outer row of teeth which 

 are found, in non venomous serpents, there exist two or 

 three, or more, long, curved, and tubular teeth, the first 

 of which is larger than the others, and is attached to a 

 small movable bone, articulated to the maxillary bone, 

 and moved by a muscular apparatus, by which the ani- 

 mal has the power of erecting it. In a state of rest the 

 fang reclines backwards along the margin of the jaw, and 

 is covered by a fold of skin ; but when about to be called 

 into use, it is erected by means of a small muscle, and 

 brought to stand perpendicular to the bone. The tooth 

 itself is as it were perforated by a tube, the mode of for- 

 mation of which was not understood until it was demon- 

 strated by Mr Smith in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1818. This tube, although completely enclosed, ex- 

 cepting at its basal and apical orifices, must be considered 

 as formed merely by the closing round of a groove in the 

 external part of the tooth itself, and hence not in any 

 way connected with the inner cavity of the tooth, in 

 which exists the pulp upon which the substance of the 

 tooth is formed. The base of the tooth, and conse- 

 quently the basal orifice of the tube just described, is 

 embedded in a sac, into which the poison is poured from 

 the ducts of the glandular structure by which it is 

 secreted, and which is believed to represent the parotid 

 gland of the higher vertebrata. The poisonous fluid itself 

 is indorous, tasteless, and of a yellow colour. It is 

 secreted in greater quantity, and its qualities are more 

 virulent in a high temperature than in cold. Its secre- 

 tion may be greatly increased by local irritation; as is 

 evidenced by the following fact. Some years since I 

 was dissecting very carefully and minutely the poison 

 apparatus of a large rattlesnake, which had been dead 

 for some hours ; the head had been taken off immediately 

 after death ; yet as I continued my dissection the yellow 

 poison continued to be secreted so fast as to require to be 

 occasionally dried off with a bit of rag or sponge ; I 

 believe that there could not have been less altogether 

 than six or eight drops at the least. 



When the animal inflicts the wound, the pressure on 

 the tooth forces a small drop of the poison through the 

 tube ; it passes through the external orifice, which is 

 situated on the concave side of the curved tooth, and is 

 in the form of a slit- The manner in which the blow is 

 inflicted is as follows. The animal generally throws 

 itself in the first place into a coil more or less close, and 

 the anterior part of the body is raised. The neck is bent 

 somewhat abruptly backwards, and the head fixed almost 

 horizontally. In an instant the head is, as it were, 

 launched by a sudden effort towards the object of its 

 anger, and the erected tooth struck into it, and withdrawn 

 with the velocity of thought. It is found by experi- 

 ment that the effect of subsequent wounds is greatly di- 

 minished either by the diminution of the quantity of 

 venom, or by some deterioration of its strength ; so that 

 if a venomous serpent be made repeatedly to inflict 

 wounds, without allowing sufficiently long intervals for 

 it to recover its powers, each successive bite becomes 

 less and less effective. A gentleman of my acquaint, 

 ance had some years since received a living rattlesnake 

 from America. Intending to try the effects of its bite 

 some rats, he introduced one of these animals into 



fully mottled, as well as by the head, which is 

 thicker than the body ; but particularly by the 

 tail, which in the viper, though it ends in a 

 point, does not run tapering to so great a length 

 as in the other. When, therefore, other dis- 

 tinctions fail, the difference of the tail can be 

 discerned at a single glance. 



The viper differs from most other serpents 

 in being much slower, as also in excluding its 

 young completely formed, and bringing them 



the cage with the serpent ; it immediately struck the 

 rat, which died in two minutes. Another rat was then 

 placed in the cage ; it ran to the part of the cage furthest 

 from the serpent, uttering cries of distress. The snake 

 did not immediately attack it ; but after about half an hour, 

 and on being irritated, it struck the rat, which did not 

 exhibit any symptoms of being poisoned for several min- 

 utes, and died at twenty minutes after the bite. A third, 

 and remarkably large rat, was then introduced into the 

 cage. It exhibited no signs of terror at its dangerous 

 companion, which, on its part, appeared to take no notice 

 of the rat. After watching for the rest of the evening, 

 my friend retired, leaving the serpent and the rat toge- 

 ther; and on rising early the next morning to ascertain 

 the fate of his two heterogeneous prisoners, he found the 

 snake dead, and the muscular part of its back eaten by 

 the rat. I do not remember at what time of the year 

 this circumstance took place, but I believe it was not du- 

 ring very hot weather. 



Although there is no reason to believe that the viper 

 employs this powerful means of destruction for the pur- 

 pose of disabling its prey before it is finally seized ; but, 

 on the contrary, all the observations which have been 

 made upon its mode of feeding, tend to show that, like 

 the snake, it seizes its prey at once, and immediately 

 begins to swallow it; yet it is not at all improbable, con- 

 sidering how instantaneously the poison begins to affect 

 small animals, that even in the act of seizing a mouse or 

 bird, or any other victim, it may instil a sufficient quan- 

 tity of venom into its system to paralyze and presently 

 destroy it. Still the action by which it takes its 

 prey is very different from that which it employs in 

 its defensive attack, and resembles that employed by the 

 innocuous tribes. Its favourite food consists of the 

 smaller mammalia, field-mice, shrews, -and similar 

 little animals, of frogs also, though less commonly, and 

 occasionally of birds. It does not always confine its vo- 

 racity within the limits of its powers of deglutition ; for 

 I have in my possession a specimen of a small viper 

 which was taken on Pcole Heath in Dorsetshire, in a 

 dying state, in the act of attempting to swallow a mouse 

 which was too large for it, the skin of the neck being so 

 distended as to have burst in several places. 



The viper, like the other reptilia, seeks a secret and 

 secure place in which to hibernate during the cold months 

 of the year. Here several are found entwined together, 

 and in a very torpid condition ; and if at this period a 

 viper be made to wound an animal with its poison-fang, 

 no injury is likely to result from it ; the poison either 

 does not exist at all, or it is inert. 



It frequents dry sandy heaths and waste places, not re. 

 quiring, like the snake, the neighbourhood of water, nor 

 swimming so readily as that species. In many parts of 

 the country it is even more common than the snake. 



The name Adder, by which it is known in many parts 

 of England and Scotland, is anciently written nedre, and 

 afterwards eddre, the initial n being dropped. It is from 

 the Anglo Saxon naedre, neither, lower, from its 

 creeping position, and the name was applied to all the 

 Serpent tribe. The word Viper, Latin Vipera, is de- 

 rived from its viviparous habit. Bell's British Pep- 

 tiles. 



