178 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
swallowing, [have nevertheless secn the young ones emerge 
Jrom the parent’s gullet, which to my mind is evidence 
that they had previously entered into it. It was in 
this way, Some twenty years ago in the month of 
October, in the early days of that month, I was 
shooting in a piece of viper-infested, very rouch, 
broken ground in this neighbourhood, when, in a 
sudden dip a few yards in front of me, my dog, a 
high-couraged retriever, all at once drew back a pace 
or two, and with the hair along his back standing 
straight up, commenced baying some object which I 
couldy’t then see over the slight rise in the ground. 
I immediately remarked to my son, who was with me, 
“There’s something up!” and rushing forward saw, 
just over in the hollow, a viper facing the dog. In 
an instant I took aim and blew the animal’s head 
clean off close by the neck, when, to my amazement, 
seven young vipers immediately oozed out from the 
gullet, One of them had a solitary shot through the 
vertebra; the other six were perfectly sound, and 
wriggled about in a most lively fashion. They were, 
roughly speaking, about the size of an ordinary lead- 
pencil. What I should be pleased to know is, if 
vipers never swallow their young, how did_ these 
seven young ones find their way into the old one’s 
cullet ? 
“My theory is, that my dog, springing suddenly for- 
ward over the bank, surprised the parent viper basking 
with her brood; then they for safety scuttled down her 
