OF SELBORNE. 65 



the 27th of May ; he found her filled with a chain of eleven 

 eggs, about the size of those of a blackbird ; but none of 

 them were advanced so far towards a state of maturity as to 

 contain any rudiments of young. Though they are ovipa- 

 rous, yet they are viviparous also, hatching their young 

 within their bellies, and then bringing them forth. Whereas 

 snakes lay chains of eggs every summer in my melon 

 beds, in spite of all that my people can do to prevent 

 them ; which eggs do not hatch till the spring following, as 

 I have often experienced. Several intelligent folks assure 

 me that they have seen the viper open her mouth and 

 admit her helpless young down her throat on sudden sur- 

 prises, just as the female opossum does her brood into the 

 pouch under her belly, upon the like emergencies : and yet 

 the London viper-catchers insist on it, to Mr. Barrington, 

 that no such thing ever happens. 1 The serpent kind eat, I 

 believe, but once in a year ; or, rather, but only just at one 

 season of the year. 2 Country people talk much of a water- 

 snake, but, I am pretty sure, without any reason ; for the 

 common snake (Coluber natrix) delights much to sport in 

 the water, perhaps with a view to procure frogs and other 

 food. 



I cannot well guess how you are to make out your twelve 



1 Upon this point Mr. Bell says : I have been assured by a very 

 honest and worthy gardener in Dorsetshire, that he had seen the young 

 vipers enter the mouth of the mother when alarmed. I have never 

 been able to obtain further evidence of the fact, though I have made 

 the most extensive inquiries in my power. If it be untrue, the popular 

 error may have arisen from the circumstance of fully formed young 

 having been found in the abdomen of the mother, ready to be excluded. 

 The actions of the young which were emancipated from the oviduct by 

 White on a subsequent occasion (see Letter XXXI. to Daines Bar- 

 rington) do not appear necessarily to bear upon the question, as there 

 are many instances of the young of animals manifesting the habits and 

 instincts of their species immediately on coming into the world as in 

 the case of young ducks seeking the water, &c. ED. 



2 The slow power of digestion possessed by serpents renders them 

 capable of remaining a long time without food. If a snake swallows a 

 frog, or a viper a mouse, it is several weeks before it is digested. It 

 is probable, therefore, that they do not eat above three or four times 

 in the course of a summer, and in winter not at all. ED. 



P 



