1 66 OTHER DENIZENS OF THE WOODS 



as a few sunny days in December or January will often entice the vipers 

 out of their hiding-places. The food of the viper consists chiefly of field-mice, 

 which, as well as their young, are often sought in their holes. The viper 

 also eats shrew-mice, young moles, nestlings, especially the young of ground-birds, 

 such as yellow buntings and pipits, and occasionally frogs, blindworms, 

 lizards, and even weasels and salamanders. In warm weather it feeds at dusk, 

 and occasionally during the night, but at other seasons in the daytime ; in the 

 mountains always in the daylight. It is thus to a great extent diurnal in the 

 hills, and more of a crepuscular or nocturnal animal in the plains. Everywhere it 

 enjoys the rays of the sun, in search of which it will mount low bushes. For this 

 reason it is necessary to be prepared, where vipers abound, to meet them on and 

 beneath brushwood, in moss and grass, or by the sides of walks and footpaths. 

 The viper does not always disclose its presence by hissing, nor does it always 

 crawl away. If any one approach too near, it draws its head back in order to 

 thrust it swiftly forward and bite, sometimes, according to circumstances, rapidly 

 repeating the operation. The bite of the viper is justly regarded as dangerous, 

 although in most cases it is not fatal. Apart from blood-serum, the best antidote 

 seems to be copious, even excessive, drinking of alcohol, combined with uninter- 

 rupted movement, maintained, if necessary, with the help of others. 



The pairing-time of the viper is generally in April and the beginning of May. 

 In the daytime (and sometimes also at night) single couples may be found on 

 sunny spots, which are sometimes joined by others, until they form a heap or 

 tangled mass. About four months later — generally in August or September— 

 the female brings forth from five to twelve, rarely thirteen to sixteen, but some- 

 times only three to four young. These are from 5| to 85 inches long, and at 

 once break through their covering, cast their skins, and immediately make use 

 of their dangerous fangs. Among mammals, the hedgehog is one of the chief 

 natural enemies of the viper, but it is as little secure against poison as the 

 others, being in reality, like other enemies of snakes, protected only by its 

 covering and dexterity. 



The smooth snake (Coronella austriaca), which represents quite 

 a different family, has no poison-fangs and only nineteen rows of 

 scales, and may, exceptionally, be as much as 30 inches long. It includes many 

 varieties, and is one of the most common and widely distributed of the European 

 species, being found, like the viper, not only in Britain, where it is rare, but over 

 most of the Continent. Besides Germany, it is met with in Holland, Belgium, 

 France, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Bosnia, Servia, northern Greece, and 

 probably in other parts of the Balkan Peninsula ; in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, 

 and Russia; as well as in lower Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and apparently still 

 farther east. 



On the Continent it is the snake of the lower mountains and hills; being 

 as much at home in their open, bushy, boulder-covered heights and declivities, 

 as on river-banks, hill-slopes, sand-hills, and in gardens and other enclosures. It 

 is found in similar haunts on the plains, but, as in the mountains, is absent from 

 bare, cold plateaus, gloomy fir-woods, moors covered with moss and marsh-plants, 

 and shady glens and watery hollows. It therefore avoids just such places as the 



