20 Vi le PeEy Re Clafs ITE. 
-_ It is alfo faid, from good authority, that they 
will prey on young birds ; whether on fuch as neftle 
on the ground, or whether they climb up trees for 
them as the Judiau ferpents do, we are quite uncer- 
tain; but we are well affured that this difcovery is 
far from a recent one: 
Ut affidens implumibus pullis avis 
Serpentium allapfus timet *. 
Thus, for its young the anxious bird 
The gliding ferpent fears. 
The viper is capable of fupporting very long ab- 
ftinence, it being known that fome have been kept 
in a box fix months without food, yet did not abate 
of their vivacity. They feed only a {mall part of 
the year, but never during their confinement; for 
if mice, their favorite diet, fhould at that time be 
thrown into their box, tho’ they will kill, yet they 
never will eat them. 
The poifon decreafes in violence in proportion to 
the length of their confinement: it muft be alfo 
added the virtues of its flefh (whatfoever they be) 
are at the fame time confiderably leffened. 
Thefe animals, when at liberty, remain torpid 
throughout the winter ; yet when confined have never 
been eeieaed to take their annual repofe. 
The method of catching them is by putting a 
clift ftick on or near their head; after which they 
are feized by the tail, and put inftantly into a bag. 
The viper-catchers are very frequently bit by them. 
in the purfuit of their bufinefs, yet we very rarely 
® Hor. Eped. I. 
er ee 
hear 
