830 Reptiles. 



it has been coiled up. The Austrian adder possesses considerably 

 more agility. If you hold it by the tail, it can gradually raise its 

 head, and, coiling round its own body, reach your hand, whilst the 

 viper is unable to quit its pendent position. The viper moves in a 

 threefold manner, by the action of its scales and ribs, which in some 

 degree compensate for the want of legs, and you may feel their action 

 if you allow a serpent to crawl over your hand ; but principally by 

 forming its body into horizontal curves, supported against some root 

 or twig. Hence, on a perfectly smooth surface, their motion is ex- 

 ceedingly slow and laborious ; but amongst grass or shrubs, which 

 afford them a purchase whenever required, they form part of the body 

 into a curve, straighten it out, form another upon the next twig, and 

 so proceed with great rapidity. Indeed, a terrified person, on wit- 

 nessing the progress of a serpent through high grass, would easily be 

 led to accuse it of flying. 



Mice of various kinds, moles, and sometimes even rats, constitute 

 the favourite food of the viper ; frogs, which are eagerly devoured by 

 the common adder, it rarely touches, except from necessity. Living 

 animals are its only food, although I have seen a viper carry the wing 

 of a sparrow, which had been thrown into the den, about in its jaws 

 for a long time. Contrary to the opinion of some naturalists, I main- 

 tain that the viper generally, if not invariably, makes use of its venom- 

 ous fangs to secure its prey. This I state with the more confidence, 

 as 1 have seen the viper eat, both at large and in confinement, which 

 I believe very few have witnessed. For the benefit of those who wish 

 to study the economy of reptiles, I will describe the arrangements we 

 made use of. A pit was dug in the earth, well walled and paved, and 

 filled at bottom with bog-earth, turf, and roots of wild rosemary, for 

 about two feet in depth. A stone trough full of water, fitted up with 

 moss and pebbles, occupied one end, and the whole was covered in 

 with glasses like a melon-frame. Into this receptacle we turned vi- 

 pers, male and female, old and young, common adders, Austrian ad- 

 ders, and one specimen of Coluber flavescens, blind-worms, lizards 

 [Lacerta agilis and crocea, the latter of which was for a long time 

 considered fabulous by the Berlin naturalists), the tree-frog (Hyla ar- 

 borea), common frogs (Rana esculenta and temporaria), toads (Bufo 

 cinereus, calamita and wridis), Bombinator igneus and Salamandra 

 maculata ; in short, a pretty good assortment of European reptiles, 

 which all seemed to live peaceably together. Now whether it was the 

 soothing effects of the rosemary, I cannot say ; but the vipers, which 

 always, I believe, refuse food in captivity, lost their stoic virtue, and 



