372 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



was attracted by a hissing noise at his feet. On 

 looking down he saw a large Viper lying distended 

 in a cart rut, in the act of receiving five young 

 vipers into its mouth, which he distinctly saw the 

 reptile open wide before the first of the five crawled 

 in. It was immediately despatched, and on cutting 

 the body open, the woodman found the young ones 

 alive, and wriggling some distance down, and still 

 further towards the posterior end, an undigested 

 shrew mouse." 



In November 1895 Mr Pleydell again wrote : — 

 "I consider there can be no further testimony 

 needed to substantiate the long-contested question 

 whether the Adder swallows her young in time of 

 danger than that of Charles Joyce of Winterbourne, 

 Houghton, Dorset. An Adder was seen by Joyce 

 to lower her head, which had been for some time in 

 an erect position, and after resting the lower jaw on 

 the ground, she deliberately opened her mouth and 

 received her offspring, thirteen in number. With 

 thoughtful precaution, after killing her, he tied a 

 string round her throat and brought the reptile 

 home, and in the presence of my tenant he liberated 

 the thirteen young from the dead body of the old 

 one, as lively as when they entered her mouth some 

 hours previously — a proof that they had not entered 

 the actual stomach, otherwise digestion would surely 

 have commenced its disintegrating work." This, 

 however, would not necessarily be the case, for it 

 has been ascertained by experiment that the o-astric 

 fluid acts much more slowly upon living tissue than 

 upon dead prey ; thus the temporary retention of 



