204. NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER XXXI. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, April z^th, 1776. 



DEAR SIR, On August the 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper, 

 which seemed very heavy and bloated, as it lay in the grass basking 

 in the sun. When we came to cut it up, \ve found that the abdomen 

 was crowded with young, fifteen in number ; the shortest of which 

 measured full seven inches, and were about the size of full-grown 

 earth-worms. This little fry issued into the world with the true 

 viper-spirit about them, showing great alertness as soon as dis- 

 engaged from the belly of the dam : they twisted and wriggled 

 about, and set themselves up, and gaped very wide when touched 

 with a stick, showing manifest tokens of menace and defiance, 

 though as yet they had no manner of fangs that we could find, even 

 with the help of our glasses. 



To a thinking mind nothing is more wonderful than that early 

 instinct which impresses young animals with a notion of the situa- 

 tion 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 furnished 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.* 



* See Letter XVII., First Series, to Mr. Pennant, p. 50. which should be turned to and 

 read along with this. 



