. 
270 
playmate on account of this work, — you shall not 
do it!’ It will scarcely be credited, that, entirely from - 
what I saw and knew respecting these little altercations, 
I was both surprised an angry at the female. In ordé?, 
however, to save tl ric from spoliation, she left off 
working, and fled bush to bush, for the express pur- 
pose of teasing him. Soonsafterwards, having made mat- 
ters up again, the femalé returnéd to heflabour, and “the 
male sung during several minutes in*the most ‘ani ated 
strains. After his*song was concluded he began again to 
occupy himself with the work, and with fresh ardour car= 
ried such materials as his companion required, “till the 
spirit of frolic again became buoyant, and a scene similar® 
to that which I havejust described-recurred. I have wit- 
nessed eight interruptions of this kind in one morning. 
How happy birds are! They are certainly the privileged 
ereatures of nature, thus to work and sport alternately as 
fancy prompts them, ws 
«©On the third day the bird 1 to rear the side 
walls of the nest, after having renderedthe bottom compact 
by repeatedly pressing the material ith their breasts, 
and turning themselves round upon them in all direc- 
tions. They first formed a plain border, which they 
afterwards trimmed, and upon this they piled up tufts of, he killed it. 
cotton, which was felted into the structure by beating 
and pressing with their breasts and the shoulders of their 
wings, taking care to arrange any projecting corner with 
their beaks so as to interlace it into the tissue, and render 
it more firm. The contiguous branches of the bush were 
enveloped as the work proceeded in the side walls, but 
without deranging the circular cavity of the interior. This 
part of the nest required many material that I was 
quite astonished at the quantity which tas 
‘©On the seventh day their task was finished; and 
anxious to examine the interior, I determined to — 
duce my finger, when I felt an egg that had probably bee 
laid that morning, for on the previous evening 1 could 
see there was no egg in it, as it was not quite covered i 
This beautiful edifice, which was as whi 
nine inches in heighton the outside, whi 
it was not more than five. Its external for 
irregular on account of the branches which it a been f 
found necessary to enclose; but the inside exactly résem- 
bled a pullet’s egg placed with the smal upwards, 
Its greatest diameter was five inches, smallest 
four. The entrance was two-thirds orm 1e whole 
height, as seen on the outside; but witltin it almost reach- _ 
ed the arch of the ceilin 7e. 
‘¢ The interior of thi as so neatly wo nd 
felted together, that it might have been takem for a piece 
of fine cloth, a hitdle worn, the tissue being so compact 
¥ 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
and close, that it would have been impossible to détach a 
‘particle of the materials without tearin g the texture to 
pieces; yet was this only effected by process which I 
have already*deseribed; and it mu fessed that it 
was a work truly: admirable, consi e instrumetits 
of the little mechanics.”’ 
* *- « 
% o 7 a + 
Aw ae 
1 once met ie a man #bdiniploy ed himscltiglomin-. a 
mer iff catching. Adders, the fat of which he preserved anid : 
sold 4s a sovereign remedy for hurts and swellings, and * 
some other parts of the animal went to, the apothecaries t6 4 
‘catehing 
be used in their materia mediea. ‘his man im 
Adders used a forked stick and a shorter ones With the 
first he pinned the Adder to the ground, and killed it with 
He was accompanied by a dog, who’ hunted 
Rnuae- < 
shake it 
his head, that 
e him before» 
med m 
the other. 
for these animals, and who, when he had fou 
trived generally to seize it by the middle, 
with so much rapidity against the sides o 
not one Adder in a hundred had time to 
His owner, however, in 
when this happened his head instantly 
swelling was almost as quickly remoye« 
with some of the fat of Adders, wh 
about with him for the purpose. Je 
yielded about half a pound weight of fat. ‘They feed on 
worms, mice, frogs, andyyoung birds;,and before the win- 
ter sets in, would appear to quit the open downs, where 
they are found in summer, for the neighbouring woods, 
as a woodman told me, he had found near t 
clustered together in a to e, in grub 
treein the woods. Th will however hybernize, (if 
ae: word,) wi 1 common snake and the slow 
ch of these nail been fotind with some ‘vipers 
in a torpid state, a short time ago. Phe viper-eatcher 
whom I met With assured methat he haddgequently seen . 
the } vipers take refu inside their mot 
ch she opens for that pur- 
dedi He also assured me 
ova being*hatched in the 
ey probably creep, as’ « 
state, after they have 
He also informed me, that 
at they are produced ali 
ide of the mother, hiel 
advan 
fuge,* 
* 
* The mode of parturition stated by the viper-catcher is generally 
supposed to be a vulgar error. He seemed, however, very confident 
that he wasright. May not ‘the viper, like the lizard, be ovo- vivipa- 
rous? Some naturalists are of the same opinion as the viper-catcher 
mentioned, yiz., that the eggs are hatched in the womb. 
