KEY. M. C. II. BIRD ON THE VIPER. 
243 
XV. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE VIPER ( PELIUS DERUS). 
By Rev. M. C. H. Bird, M.A., M.B.O.U. 
Read 26th February, 1001. 
In Gilbert White’s ‘Natural History of Selborne’ (in the Naturalist’s 
Calendar), October 28th is given as the latest date on which 
Vipers were observed abroad by Mark wick. The first part of 
Novembor, 1890, was not exceptionally mild, but on the 5th 
a Viper was seen out at Stalhani, and on November 10th I had one 
brought to me from the same neighbourhood ; it was a female, and 
measured 25 inches in length, gape ! an inch, extending to 1 J inch. 
It contained- 23 eggs, which measured from \ to | inch in length. 
It was very fat. The stomach was empty, and I injected one-third 
of a pint of water, and then, perhaps, did not test its greatest 
capacity. (In the ‘Zoologist’ for 1900, p. 395, Dr. Leighton gives 
the average length of the gullet in Vipers as 9 inches ; and the 
average diameter, when distended, 1 inch, the average circumference 
3.\ inches.) In dune, 1891, 1 asked Money, gamekeeper at Blickling 
Hall, whether he had ever seen a Viper swallow her young. He 
replied, “ Yes, and I once saw two young Thrushes fly down 
a Viper’s throat,” this in allusion to the old idea of animal magnetism 
being employed by Snakes, Foxes, and Stoats. 
On August 30th, 1892, I had a female Viper brought to me 
from East Ruston, which was supposed to have been “caught in 
the very act,” &c. Taking it down to the late Dr. Walker’s surgery 
at Stalham, with his assistance, I Idled its throat and stomach with 
plaster of Paris, and the following day we held a post-mortem, the 
verdict being, that the Viper had probably been killed whilst in 
the act of parturition, she having, when we opened her, seven young 
ones inside her, but all of them outside the abdominal coat ; they 
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