LXXIII.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
205 
LETTEK LXXIII. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
On August the 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper, which 
seemed very heavy and bloated, as it lay in the grass basking 
in the sun. When we came to cut it \\]), we found that the 
abdomen was crowded with young, fifteen in number ; the 
shortest of which measured full seven inches, and were about 
the size of full-grown earthworms. This little fry issued into 
the world with the tru,e viper spirit about them, showing great 
alertness as soon as disengaged from the belly of the dam : 
they twisted and wriggled about, and set themselves up, and 
gaped very wide when touched with a stick, showing manifest 
tokens of menace and defiance, though as yet they had no 
manner of fangs that we could find, even with the help of 
our glasses. 
To a thinking mind nothing is more wonderful than that 
early instinct which impresses young animals with the notion 
of the situation of their natural weapons, and of using them 
properly in their own defence, even before those weapons 
subsist or are formed. Thus a young cock will spar at his 
adversary before his spurs are grown ; and a calf or a lamb 
will push with their heads before their horns are sprouted. In 
the same manner did these young adders attempt to bite before 
their fangs were in being. The dam, however, was furnished 
with very formidable ones, which we lifted up (for they fold 
down when not used), and cut them off with the point of our 
scissors. 
There was little room to suppose that this brood Iiad ever 
been in the open air before ; and that they were taken in for 
refuge, at the mouth of the dam, when slie perceived that 
danger was approaching ; because then probably we should 
have found them somewhere in the neck, and not in the 
abdomen. 
Sp:lbornk. April 29, 1776. 
