Reptiles. 1029 



for the acknowledged difficulty of calculating nicely when taken by 

 surprize, the number must have been very great : for after discharg- 

 ing his gun into the heap, Loe counted seventeen heads among the 

 fragments. I have never seen anything at all approaching to this 

 number ; yet to give your readers some idea of what success they may 

 look for, should they visit our neighbourhood in search of a cargo of 

 vipers, I may mention that, one day in April, 1843, having wounded, 

 on St- Boniface Down, a ring-ouzel, which sought refuge in a patch 

 of furze not thirty feet square ; two young friends and myself, while 

 searching for this poor bird, did then and there slay three full-grown 

 vipers, and come into pretty close contact with three, if not four more. 

 I make a point of killing, or at least of capturing, every viper that 

 comes within reach : for, though 1 doubt not they confer their quota 

 of benefit on man, yet the poison-fang renders the viper formidable to 

 both biped and quadruped. And yet, how seldom do accidents oc- 

 cur ! My cats go peering about in the haunts of the viper, and cer- 

 tainly take no pains to avoid a collision : for, as I have often proved, 

 they are unsuspicious of danger. My dogs, too, are constantly with 

 their noses to the ground, and it seems remarkable that they do not 

 blunder upon a viper occasionally. The truth is, I believe, that the 

 viper will always make its escape, if it can ; and will strike only in 

 self-defence. 



By way of illustration of what I have said above of the difficulty of 

 judging correctly when taken by surprize, and especially if alarmed ; 

 I once heard of a lady gravely relating, without the slightest suspicion 

 she was uttering what did not come within the range of possibilities, 

 that a viper sprung at her face, and missing its aim, actually cleared 

 her head ! I did my best, for politeness required as much, not to ex- 

 press in my countenance what was passing within, when the story 

 was told me by the friend of the lady, this friend herself being fully 

 persuaded of the truth of the occurrence. But these ladies are not 

 the only persons in the world who believe that the English viper can 

 beat an English hunter at a five-barred gate. The error is a very 

 common one ; and, so far as my experience goes, not easily removed. 

 The truth is, however, that this reptile, so far from being able to clear 

 a lady five feet something high, could not, by the greatest effort viper 

 flesh and blood is capable of making, so much as raise its tail from 

 the ground. I once tried what I could learn from domesticating a vi- 

 per through the winter. I obtained it September 25, 1839; and kept 

 it usually in a room wherein was an Arnott's stove ; whereby a tolera- 

 bly high and equal temperature was maintained : consequently it ne- 



