IK) POISON OF THE VIPER 



" Several years ago, in my school-boy days, I had an experience with a Viper, which 

 may possibly interest such of your readers as have not enjoyed a similar intimacy with 

 the creature, especially as it places the Viper character in a somewhat more amiable light 

 than it is usually represented. 



One cold damp day in the beginning of May, I was out in the country on a foraging 

 expedition ; birds' nests and objects of natural history in general being the objects of 

 search. Entering, in the course of exploration, a likely coppice, I descried a blackbird's 

 nest perched among some tangled stems of underwood three or four feet from the ground. 

 A glance at the interior, however, soon showed that some other marauder had forestalled 

 me, as the sole occupants of the nest were some crushed and empty egg-shells, and scanty 

 remains of the fluid contents spilt about. " A weasel," thought I, but wrongfully, as it 

 happened, for on turning away in dudgeon, a rustling movement among the herbage on 

 the ground a couple of yards off, attracted my eyes and ears ; and there I saw tin 1 

 undoubted spoiler of the nest, a large Viper, moving away briskly with his tail in tli 

 direction of the nest. 



/x 



VIPER, OK ADDER. 1'elHu Berus. 



A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and my slight natural history reading, 

 assisted by bad engravings, had helped me to fancy that I knew the Viper from the 

 common Snake well enough ; and so, deciding that this was only a common harmless 

 Snake, I made a plunge at the creature and apprehended him with my unprotected hand. 

 Eeceiving no bite, I was now confirmed in my idea of the beast's perfect innocence 

 (except in the bird's-nest matter), and decided on adopting him as a pet So presently set 

 off home, a distance of more than two miles, taking my serpentine friend in my hand. Not 

 always in my hand, however, for to beguile the homeward journey I proceeded to try 

 sundry experiments on the supple backbone and easy temper of the animal, occasionally 

 tying him round my neck, and so wearing him for a considerable distance ; then twining 

 him round my wrist into a fancy bracelet, and weaving him into various knots and devices 

 according to taste, all this with perfect impunity on my part, and the utmost apparent 

 good humour on his. 



On the road, a kind farmer of my acquaintance, whose natural history lore was more 

 practical than my own, endeavoured to convince me that I was ' harbouring a Viper in 

 my bosom,' but I was not going to hear my good-tempered playmate called bad names ; 

 put my finger into the Adder's very mouth to prove he had no idea of biting, and so 

 passed on, in much conceit with myself as an accomplished herpetologist. 



