1028 Reptiles. 



I have found young blind worms, not exceeding four or five inches in 

 length, in May, and throughout the summer ; and on September 27, 

 1839, I caught a large female, which I transferred to a bottle, and 

 sent to a friend. On the night of the 29th it produced from sixteen 

 to twenty young. The blind worm, like the lizard, receives no quar- 

 ter from the kestrel ; I have several times taken pieces two inches 

 long out of the craw of kestrels that have been brought me. 



The Ringed Snake, although by no means uncommon, is not nearly 

 so abundant with us as is the viper. I have been very unsuccessful 

 in my endeavours to domesticate the snake ; having never succeeded 

 in inducing one even to feed in a state of confinement ; and yet I 

 have kept them until my humanity would not allow me to deprive the 

 creatures any longer of their liberty. 



The snake, like the viper, is fond of basking in the sun, and will 

 expand the ribs, when basking, with a view, I presume, of intercept- 

 ing more of the solar rays. The female viper is said to do so, and, I 

 deem, with reason, in order to bring the eggs to maturity ; but whe- 

 ther the snake, not being ovo-viviparous, can be supposed to have 

 the same object in view, I know not. This, however, I am sure of, 

 that the male viper expands the body exactly as does the female : for 

 a male viper I once kept would render its body so nearly flat, that I 

 question whether the thickest part would have measured three lines ; 

 yet the length of this fellow was twenty inches. 



One day last summer, a snake thus basking put my courage to the 

 test ; indeed, for the moment, it did more, for it put it to flight. The 

 animal was stretched out nearly at full length — that length being lit- 

 tle short of a yard ; and its width was so great, the colour, too, being 

 unusually dark, that for the moment I mistook it for a black viper. 

 Raising a shout to bring Loe to my assistance, I made a rush to en- 

 close the head of the creature in my butterfly-net. I was not quite 

 quick enough ; and the hoop of the net not being strong enough to 

 keep the fellow down, he glided from beneath it, and, quick as 

 thought, was gone among the underwood, leaving behind him indis- 

 putable evidence — unless my nasal organs are very treacherous — that 

 I had missed catching a fine specimen of the ringed snake. 



The common Viper, as I have already intimated, is very abundant. 

 I have frequently seen seven or eight during a walk in spring ; and in 

 some particular spots they are, or have been, very numerous indeed. 

 R. Loe pointed out to me a rough piece of ground, studded with has- 

 socks, near Alverston-mill, in the parish of Brading, where he one day 

 saw "near a bushel" all lying together. Now, making due allowance 



