OF SERPENTS. 



They take up their Winter-Quaiters ia Caverns, hollow- 

 Places, Burrows, Rocks, old Hedges, and under the Roots of 

 Vegetables, efpecially the Birch, others fay Beech-Trees, which 

 were confecrated by the Pagans to the fupreme Numen. 



I N thefe lonefome Habitations they repofe themfelves during^ 

 the Winter, in a kind of fleepy State, as half dead, v/ith open- 

 Eyes *. In this Solitude they lie dormant, indulg'd with a little 

 humid Air, till the Sun, by its Entrance into the northern Con- 

 ftellations, reftores them to the adive Life ; without fome Air 

 they could not live. Mr. Boyle made the experiment, by putting 

 Vipers into the exhaufled Receiver, which foon died upon pump- 

 ing out the Air. 



It argues ~ no little Penetration, that they know when and 

 how to llaelter themfelves in Places of Safety in all Ssafons; and 

 what is yet more afl:oniil:iing, is, that they live there fo many 

 Months without Food and without Adtion j and when releafed 

 from their hybernal Confinement, how foon do they find out 

 their appointed Food ? Taken in this light, they are not fingular i 

 for 'tis believed, there are other Animals that pafs the Winter- 

 Seafon in a ftate of Indolence and Inadlivity, as Cuckows and 

 Swallov/s, making way by their P^etreat for Woodcocks and 

 Fieldfeirs, which vifit us in Winter, and then return northwards : 

 They are faid to breed in colder Countries, as Norivay, RuJJia, 

 Swede?!, and the IJlands of Orcades, the moft northern Farts of 

 Scotland ; which, lilands v/ere formerly in pofiefiion of the Nor- 

 ivegians, and given and annex'd to Scotland by Chrifliern I. King 

 of Denmark and JSlorzvay, on the Marriage of his Daughter Mar- 

 garet, with James III. King oi Scotland, about the Year 1474. 



I T is probable, that when thefe northern Countries are buried in 

 Snow, and their Rivers are frozen up, thefe Birds take their Flight 

 hither, and fuch like Places, where they have accefs to V/ater, ^c. 

 But as to Cuckows and Swallov/s, as intimated above, 'tis generally 

 allov/d that they fleep in Winter, having, as 'tis faid, been found 

 in hollow Trees and Caverns. Nor is this at all unlikely ; tlio' 

 on the other hand, I can fee no Abinrdity in luppofing that thefe 

 fhould go upon a Summer, as tiie other do upon a Winter Pil- 

 grimage ; that thefe purfae a leffer Heat, as well as the others fly 

 from a greater Cold. Yea, Vegetables are laid to fucp in V/ inter, 



and 

 * Jpertis Oculis. Conrad. Gefner, pag, 3. de SerJ>. 



