CHARLES WATERTON AS A NATURALIST. 



39 



of science, or common sense, if he 

 will but exercise it, to see it done 

 in order to believe it; but when 

 ocular testimony is added, it sets 

 the question at rest beyond all 

 doubt. 



The next thing to be considered 

 is the anatomy of the snake im- 

 mediately after the birth of her 

 progeny ; but that could not be so 

 easily ascertained as that she swal- 

 lows them.* 



CHARLES WATERTON AS A NATURALIST^ 



I. 



WHAT Charles Waterton said of 

 HumboJdt in regard to orni- 

 thology applied well to himself in 

 the matter of snakes and other ani- 

 mals. At page 251, Warne, 1871, 

 he wrote : " As for Humboldt, I 

 cannot think of submitting to his 



* The following short articles appear- 

 ed in Land and Water, on the days re- 

 spectively mentioned : 



" THE VIPER AND ITS YOUNG. A 

 few days ago, says the Ulverston Mirror, 

 Mr. Edward Swainson, Nibthwaite, met 

 with a viper on the eastern side of Conis- 

 ton Lake, and killed it. Then, observing 

 it to be of unusual thickness about the 

 middle, he put his foot upon the place, 

 thinking that the reptile had recently 

 swallowed a mouse. The pressure 

 brought out ten young vipers from the 

 mouth of the old one. Some of them 

 were about five inches long, and some 

 shorter ; but all were alive and active, as 

 if they had previously seen the light of 

 day, and had again sought shelter in the 

 parent." September z^fh, 1873. 



" VIPERS SWALLOWING THEIR YOUNG. 

 Sir : I observed in your paper of last 

 week I have not a copy by me, and do 

 not remember the signature the state- 

 ment of a correspondent, that having 

 killed a female viper, he placed his foot 

 upon her, and that forthwith out of her 

 mouth issued a stream of viperlings. If 

 they came out of the mouth, they must 

 have previously entered it. I wish to ask 

 Mr. Frank Buckland, and I beg for a 

 categorical answer, whether he believe 

 this story or not ? If he do, he must re- 

 cant his often-expressed conviction, that 

 the fact is incredible and impossible. If 

 not, he must be prepared to show that 

 your correspondent, intentionally or 

 otherwise, has stated what is not true. 

 G. R. 



" [I perfectly believe the young vipers 



testimony in matters of ornithology 

 for one single moment. The avo- 

 cations of this traveller were of too 

 multiplied a nature to enable him to 

 be a correct practical ornithologist." 

 And he illustrated what White of 

 Selborne said about naturalists 

 generally : " Men that undertake 



were pressed out of the mouth of the 

 mother viper when our correspondent 

 put his foot upon it ; but it certainly does 

 not follow that these young vipers had 

 been previously swallowed by the moth- 

 er ; they had never been born. When 

 the foot was placed upon the mother viper 

 they were squeezed out of her mouth. 

 F. BUCKLAND.]" October $th. 



" VIPERS SWALLOWING THEIR YOUNG. 

 Sir : In your last impression I begged 

 for an explicit answer from Mr. Buck- 

 land, ' Whether or not he believed the 

 statement made by a correspondent that, 

 having killed a female viper and placed 

 his foot upon her, out of her mouth is- 

 sued a stream of viperlings?' To this he 

 replies that, 'The young vipers were 

 pressed otit of the mouth of the mother 

 when your correspondent put his foot 

 upon it.' This is not exactly the cate- 

 gorical answer I expected, but I must 

 now ask Mr. Buckland to reconcile this 

 explanation with his statement, repeated 

 in two or three numbers of your paper 

 last year, that the unborn vipers were 

 proved on dissection to be located not in 

 the stomach with which, of course, the 

 mouth communicates but in the abdomi- 

 nal parietes, a portion of the creature 

 entirely distinct and unconnected with 

 it ! It appears to me self-evident that 

 the young vipers, if they came out 

 of the mouth, must have gone in at the 

 mouth. They could not otherwise have 

 reached that orifice. The question, there- 

 fore, again resolves itself into ono of 

 credibility. G. R." October nth. 



f Dated August i6th, 1873. 



