NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 71 



Royal Society, dated June the 5th, 1766, in his account of 

 the mud inguana, an amphibious bipes from South Carolina, 

 that the water-eft, or newt, is only the larva of the land-eft, 

 as tadpoles are of frogs. Lest I should be suspected to 

 misunderstand his meaning, I shall give it in his own 

 words. Speaking of the opercula or coverings to the gills 

 of the mud inguana, he proceeds to say that, "The form 

 of these pennated coverings approach very near to what 

 I have some time ago observed in the larva or aquatic state 

 of our English lacerta, known by the name of eft, or newt ; 

 which serve them for coverings to their gills, and for fins 

 to swim with while in this state ; and which they lose, as 

 well as the fins of their tails, when they change their state 

 and become land animals, as I have observed, by keeping 

 them alive for some time myself." 



LinncBus, in his Systema Natura, hints at what Mr. Ellis 

 advances more than once. 



Providence has been so indulgent to us as to allow of 

 but one venomous reptile of the serpent kind in these 

 kingdoms, and that is the viper. As you propose the good 

 of mankind to be an object of your publications, you will 

 not omit to mention common sallad oil as a sovereign 

 remedy against the bite of the viper. As to the blind worm 

 (anguis fragilis, so called because it snaps in sunder with 

 a small blow), I have found, on examination, that it is 

 perfectly innocuous. A neighbouring yeoman (to whom 

 I am indebted for some good hints) killed and opened a 

 female viper about the 27th of May: he found her filled 

 with a chain of eleven eggs, about the size of those of a 

 blackbird ; but none of them were advanced so far towards 

 a state of maturity as to contain any rudiments of young. 

 Though they are oviparous, yet they are viviparous also, 

 hatching their young within their bellies, and then bringing 

 them forth. Whereas snakes lay chains of eggs every 

 summer in my melon-beds, in spite of all that my people 

 can do to prevent them ; which eggs do not hatch till the 

 spring following, as I have often experienced. Several 

 intelligent folks assure me that they have seen the viper 



