78 OUE EEPTILES. 



the year 1863 communicated to the Zoologist the 

 following instance, told to him by a person in 

 whose accuracy he had the fullest reliance. 

 " John Galley saw a viper at Swannington, in 

 Norfolk, surrounded by several young ones ; the 

 parent reptile perceiving itself to be observed, 

 opened its mouth, and one of the young ones im- 

 mediately crept down its throat; a second fol- 

 lowed, but.after entering for about half its length, 

 wriggled out again, as though unable to accom- 

 plish an entrance. Upon this Galley killed and 

 opened the viper, and found in the gullet, imme- 

 diately behind the jaws, the young one which he 

 had seen enter, and close behind that a recently 

 swallowed mouse. Galley was of opinion that 

 the first young viper which entered was unable 

 to pass the mouse, and that consequently there 

 was not sufficient room for the second young one, 

 which endeavoured unsuccessfully to follow in the 

 wake of the first. " * 



To this we may add another instance corrobo- 

 rative, and yet more conclusive, on the faith of a 

 clergyman with whose name and address we are 

 furnished, and in whose testimony we have the 

 greatest confidence. " Now, ' seeing is be- 

 lieving/ and I well remember having seen in my 



The Zoologist, p. 8856. 



