THE VIPEE, OR ADDER. 79 



boyhood some thirty years ago an instance of 

 the fact, the truth of which is doubted because 

 resting merely on the testimony of unscientific 

 country people. Now, I have no pretensions to 

 science, but I vouch for the truth above referred 

 to of having, in my boyhood when out on a 

 birds'-nesting expedition, in a southern county, 

 with some three or four companions come sud- 

 denly upon a viper sunning her young brood on 

 an open grassy spot in a broad hedge-row : 

 hedge-rows were common in those days. Im- 

 mediately she saw us, she began to hiss, and 

 away went the young, previously some feet from 

 her, 'helter-skelter' towards their mother; rushed 

 into her mouth expanded to an immense width 

 for so small a creature and down her throat, 

 one over the other, while you could say ( Jack 

 Robinson/ The space where she was recreating 

 was some twenty feet square, so that before she 

 could beat to cover, we, boylike, being armed 

 with sticks, had beaten her to death. This done, 

 one of the party with his knife opened the body, 

 and out came again the little ones, all of which 

 we killed. I do not remember the exact number, 

 but my impression is that it was not more than 

 six or eight." * Another gentleman recently 

 communicated to Science Gossip the following 

 occurrence : 



* Science Gossip, p. 108. 



