1664 The Zoologist — May, 1869. 



ground, where it remains supported on its tail or posterior portion of 

 the body, ready to coil itself up again and aim afresh a second blow, 

 if the first should fail. To do this the viper distends its mouth, 

 draws back its fangs, arranges them in the right direction, and then 

 plunges them into its enemy by a blow of the head or upper jaw : 

 this done, the fangs are withdrawn. The lower jaw, which is closed 

 at the same moment, serves as a point of resistance and favours the 

 entrance of the poison-fangs; but this assistance is very slight, and the 

 reptile acts by striking rather than biting. There are limes, however, 

 when the viper bites without coiling itself up and then darting forth ; 

 this occurs, for instance, when it meets with some small animal, which 

 it destro3s at leisure and without anger, or when it is seized by the 

 tail or middle of the body, in which case it turns round and plunges 

 in its fangs. As the teeth are buried in the tissues of the body struck, 

 the poison is driven down the canals which pass through them by the 

 action of the muscles which close the mouth, and the injection takes 

 place with a force proportionate to the vigour and rage of the reptile, 

 and the sni)ply of poison with which it is furnished." — Moquin 

 Tatuloii's Zoologie Medicale, as translated by Mr. Cooke in ' Our 

 British R('pliles.^ 



The poison, which is a pale straw-colour and liquid, — something like 

 what we should imagine fluid amber, — is without taste or smell, and, 

 by repeated experiuients on men and animals, has been proved per- 

 fectly innocuous when taken into th'fe stomach : it is secreted in a 

 spongy gland situated below the ear, or rather below the usual site of 

 the auditory organ, for there is really no proper ear : the poison passes 

 forwards along a tube concealed in the muscle of the jaw, until it 

 reaches the base of the fang ; it then descends through the fang with 

 the action of biting, and of course enters the object bitten. A great 

 deal has been written on the effect of temperature in increasing or 

 diminishing the virulence of the poison, but, so far as I have been able 

 to discover, the experiments have proved little or nothing : it seems 

 clearly established that the supply of poison is limited ; that after the 

 first discharge the eff'ect is greatly reduced, and that the creature may, 

 by continued irritation, be induced to repeat its bites until the poison 

 js exhausted and the bite become perfectly innocuous. 



Like the Common Snake, the Viper becomes torpid in winter; it 

 has frequently happened that a little company of these reptiles — ten, 

 twenty or even more — have been found coiled up together in a strange 

 mass in the hollow of a pollard willow, oak or hornbeam : they appear 



