443 
NOTES TO THE 
can be found in liis book, " A Mechanical AccoLint of i'oisoiis, by 
Eichard Mead, M.D., physician to His Majesty, 1748." A most 
magnificent work has lately been piiblislied by my friend, Dr. 
Eayrer, now in India with the Prince of Wales : it is " The Tha- 
natophidia of India : being a Description of the Venomous Snakes 
of the Indian Peninsula, with an Account of the Influence of 
their Poison on Life, and a Series of Experiments " (J. and A. 
Churchill, New Burlington Street). The coloured drawings of 
the snakes by native artists are most beautiful and life-like. 
I regret that I have not space to describe here the Coi^onella 
Imvis, a snake exceedingly like a viper, but not poisonous. It 
is found in the New Forest, but not at all commonly. It feeds 
upon lizards. I have had several in my possession. 
How TO Catch A Vipek. — Mr. Davy thus describes the modus 
operandi : — " I generally catches him with a forked stick ; I pins 
him to the ground, then I squeezes his mouth sideways, and 
scrapes or cuts his fangs out with a knife. I then scrapes out his 
poison bag, and rinses out his mouth in the nearest water; I then 
puts him in a bag. He will never open his mouth again to bite 
you any more. I used to find most of these gentlemen round by 
chalk-pits near Guildford. So long as you gets these vipers short 
up by neck they cannot harm you, though they start and swish 
their tails about like mad ; they are very dull biters on cold clays, 
but they fly through the grass of a hot day. I pnts adders and 
common snakes in a bag altogether. There is no sale for them in 
London now — only occasionally a gentleman or two might want 
them. I know an artist who nsed to keep four or five in a fern- 
case to feed with half-groAvn mice. If they were not doctored well 
they would dart at the glass. I Avas once bitten by a viper : I was 
a beating for larvcC, and did not see my gentleman, who was lying 
on a chalk bank which I was climbing up from below. I never 
saw him, so he catches the forefinger of my left hand. The bite 
was a very sharp prick, like the bite of a mouse. I sucked it 
for half an hour ; I felt pain next morning. It was sore and 
painful for four or five days." 
Mr. Davy's men, as well as himself, have frequently found 
young adders in lanes in chalky districts in various parts of 
the country ; he has never seen or heard of any one who has 
seen the viper swallow its young. He says, " I have had men 
out daily for years in all parts of the country, and none of my 
practical bird-catchers believe in it. The story of vipers swal- 
lowing their young is all Old Mother Hahhard." 
My friend. Major Eogers, who has done so much to get tigers 
destroyed in India, has shown me how to make a noose for 
