BRITISH REPTILES 99 
from the glands showing like very small dew-drops, 
as it oozed down the grooved fangs. Also I showed 
them the teeth behind, ready to take the place of the 
first, if through accident these were broken. The 
harmless but dreaded tongue was then examined, and 
other matters gone through with, which I need not 
detail here. 
As I left them with my captive, I heard Waggle's 
voice : ' If you tells me agin,' said he, ' as he didn't 
catch that varmint fust by its tail and then by its 
head, you'll hev to upend yerself (fight). I tell 'ee, I 
see un do it.' 
To settle the matter, I walked back and placed the 
viper on the ground ; it coiled instantly. ' I will give 
five shillings to the man who picks him up,' said I. 
' Not fur five hundred,' cried they. 
I held it before them. ' Ye wunt feel niffed like 
when we meets ye, if we gives ye plenty o' elber-room, 
mister,' was their comment on this last performance. 
In the course of sixteen years' observations of the 
reptiles in their own haunts, I have seen many varie- 
ties of the same species, of all sizes and all shades of 
colour. But one and all had the poison mark the 
zig-zag markings. The situations they live in are as 
various as their shades of colouring. In the fir woods 
we find them, on the commons, on the sand heaths, or 
H 2 
