i8o The Natural History 



LETTER XXXI 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, April 29, 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, 

 we 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 disengaged 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 fiings 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 

 the notion of the situation 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 



