OF SELBOUNE. 
229 
LETTER XXXI. 
TO THE HONOUEABLE DAINES BARRTXGTON. 
Selborne, April 29, 1776. 
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 up, we found that 
the abdomen was crowded with young, fif- 
teen 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 true 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, shearing manifest tokens of menace and de- 
fiance, 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 lamb will push with its head before its 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 scissars. 
^ Bearing in mind the mucli vexed question, whether vipers, in time 
of danger, swallow their young, it may be here observed, that the ex- 
pression " abdomen," as used by Gilbert White, must not be regarded 
as synonymous with the true stomach, but only as implying that larger 
cavity in which both stomach and uterus are contained. The young, of 
course, were in the latter and most natural receptacle. — Ed. 
