56 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



" The forms of these pennated coverings approach very 

 near to what I have some time ago observed in the larva 

 or aquatic state of our English lacerta, knoAvn by the 

 name of eft, or newt ; which serve them for coverings to 

 their gills, and for fins to swim with while in this state ; 

 and which they lose, as well as the fins of their tails, 

 when they change their state, and become land animals, 

 as I have observed, by keeping them alive for some time 

 myself." 



Linnseus, in his Systema Naturse, hints at what 

 Mr. Ellis advances more than once. 



Providence has been so indulgent to us as to allow of 

 but one venomous reptile of the serpent kind in these 

 kingdoms, and that is the viper. As you propose the 

 good of mankind to be an object of your publications, you 

 will not omit to mention common salad-oil as a sovereign 

 remedy against the bite of the viper. As to the blind 

 worm (anguis fragilis, so called because it snaps in 

 sunder with a small blow), I have found, on examina- 

 tion, that it is perfectly innocuous. A neighbouring 

 yeoman (to whom I am indebted for some good hints) 

 killed and opened a female viper about the twenty- 

 seventh 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 oviparous, 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 intelli- 

 gent folks assure me that they have seen the viper open 

 her mouth and admit her helpless young down her 

 throat on sudden surprises, just as the female opossum 



