no 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 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 black- 

 bird'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 the undoubted spoiler of the nest, a large Viper, moving away briskly 

 with his tail in the direction of the nest. 





VIPER, OR ADDER. Pelias 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. Re- 

 ceiving 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, occa- 

 sionally 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 ut- 

 most apparent good humor on his. 



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

 practical than my own, endeavored to convince me that I was 'harboring a Viper in 

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

 put my fingei 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. 



