WEAPONS OF THE VIPER. 95 



white ground, spotted witli black ; the lower jaw is yellow. The 

 eyes are small and sharp, edged with black. The tongue is long, 

 grey, and forked. 



Adders are met with in the wooded, stony, and mountainous 

 regions of southern and temperate Europe — in Prance, Italy, 

 England, Germany, Prussia, Sweden, Poland, and even Norway. 

 They are met with in the heaths near London and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Paris ; they are met with at Montmorency, and in 

 the forest of Fontainebleau. They feed upon Lizards, Frogs, mol- 

 lusks, worms, insects, and small mammalia, such as Field-mice, 

 Shrews, and Moles. They pass the winter and early spring in 

 a state of torpor in deep hollows, where they are sheltered from the 

 cold. It is not unusual to find several Adders coiled up together 

 in one heap, entwined and intimately interlaced together. 



The movement of Adders is abrupt, slow, and irregular. They 

 appear to be shy and timid creatures, shunning the day, and only 

 seeking their food in the evening. The young come into the world 

 naked and living : so long as they are maintained within the 

 mother, they are enclosed in eggs with membranous shells. 

 Soon after their birth the young Vipers, whose length does not 

 exceed six or seven inches, are abandoned by the mother, and left 

 to shift for thetiiselves. They do not, however, acquire their full 

 development till they are six or seven years old. Adders are justly 

 considered objects of fear and horror both to Men and to other 

 animals. They carry with them a formidable apparatus, of which 

 it is important that both the structure and the mode of action 

 should be known. This venomous apparatus is composed of three 

 parts — the secreting glands, the canal, and the hooked fangs. 



The gland is the organ which secretes the venom ; it is 

 situated upon the sides of the head, behind and a little beneath the 

 globe of the eye ; it is formed of a number of inflated bladders, 

 composed of a granulous tissue, and disposed with great regularity 

 along the excretory canal, not unlike the barbs of a pen-feather. 

 This arrangement, however, is only visible through a micro- 

 scope. The tube destined to conduct the secreted venom through 

 the gland is straight and cylindrical ; after being filled, in its 

 short journey it ends in two peculiar hook-like teeth, called 

 fangs, tapering to a point, and in shape horn-like. They 



