NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 109 



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 points of our scissars. 



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. 1 



1 See Letter XVII to Pennant, vol. i. p. 72. [R. B. S.] 



