8860 Reptiles. 



Of the two I should rather incline to the latter, but I do not in the 

 least think that either is right. 



In the * British Cyclopedia,' the only book of reference I have at 

 hand, I read of the common viper, " They are red, brown, gray, blue 

 and black ; but still these are only shades of difference, the causes of 

 which are not known, and which occur at the same places, and even 

 in the same family." And if such wide varieties as these are by no 

 means unusual, it seems scarcely ridiculous to suppose that in very 

 rare instances vipers may be found with even such striking peculiarities 

 of colour as that which I believe I saw in the brook at Broome. 



I write with much diffidence, because 1 believe there is much 

 wisdom in the old saying that a prudent man should not believe more 

 than half of what he sees, and far less of what he hears; and only last 

 October I experienced a ludicrous proof of the extent to which 

 a man's eyes may at times deceive him in such matters. I was with 

 a cousin on one of the beautiful heathy hills which almost overhang 

 the sea near Cromer. We had just killed a viper, and he was telling 

 me of an unusually large one which he had met with the day before, 

 when suddenly we both started back as our eyes fell on what appeared 

 to be an enormous black snake coiled up at our feet. The thick ling 

 and furze in which it lay spread over it so far that half its outer coils was 

 all that we could see ; but that was quite enough to give a fair notion of 

 its tremendous size. "Had not I better put a charge of shot into it?" 

 I thought. My cousin, while I hesitated, snatched a thick stick from a 

 boy, and, pitching him his gun, aimed a blow at the unconscious sleeper 

 which would have gone far towards giving his quietus to a Boa Con- 

 strictor. The heather shook, as with a frightful contortion the monster 

 heeled over without loosening a coil, sprang out and fell at our feet. 

 My cousin stared at me and I at him, our eyes met, and as we burst into 

 a roar of laughter, a beater, who had come up, stooped down and 

 picked up the black straw "pork-pie" hat which a child he knew in 

 the village had lost on the heath the day before. 



But, although completely taken in then, I have never yet heard any 

 reason urged against the possibility (or even the probability) of the 

 existence of a viper marked as the one I described, which has appeared 

 sufficiently conclusive to warrant the rejection of the evidence of my 

 senses. I remain, &c. 



T. D. PlGOTT. 



