270 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
playmate on account of this work, therefore you shall not 
do it!’ It will scarcely be credited, that, entirely from 
what I saw and knew respecting these little altercations, 
I was both surprised and angry at the female. In order, 
however, to save the fabric from spoliation, she left off 
working, and fled from bush to bush, for the express pur- 
pose of teasing him. Soon afterwards, having made mat- 
ters up again, the female returned to her labour, and the 
male sung during several minutes in the most animated 
strains. After his song was concluded he began again to 
occupy himself with the work, and with fresh ardour car- 
ried such materials as his companion required, till the 
spirit of frolic again became buoyant, and a scene similar 
to that which I have just described recurred. I have wit- 
nessed eight interruptions of this kind in one morning. 
How happy birds are! They are certainly the privileged 
creatures of nature, thus to work and sport alternately as 
fancy prompts them. 
“On the third day the birds began to rear the side 
walls of the nest, after having rendered the bottom compact 
by repeatedly pressing the materials with their breasts, 
and turning themselves round upon them in all direc- 
tions. They first formed a plain border, which they 
afterwards trimmed, and upon this they piled up tufts of 
cotton, which was felted into the structure by beating 
and pressing with their breasts and the shoulders of their 
wings, taking care to arrange any projecting corner with 
their beaks so as to interlace it into the tissue, and render 
it more firm. The contiguous branches of the bush were 
enveloped as the work proceeded in the side walls, but 
without deranging the circular cavity of the interior. This 
part of the nest required many materials, so that I was 
quite astonished at the quantity which they used. 
“On the seventh day their task was finished; and 
3-ffTious to examine the interior, I determined to intro- 
duce my finger, when I felt an egg that had probably been 
laid that morning, for on the previous evening I could 
see there was no egg in it, as it was not quite covered in. 
This beautiful edifice, which was as -white as snow, was 
nine inches in height on the outside, whilst in the inside 
it was not more than five. Its external form was very 
irregular on account of the branches which it had been 
found necessary to enclose; but the inside exactly resem- 
bled a pullet’s egg placed with the small end upwards. 
Its greatest diameter was five inches, and the smallest 
four. The entrance was two-thirds or more of the whole 
height, as seen on the outside; but within it almost reach- 
ed the arch of the ceiling above. 
“ The interior of this nest was so neatly worked and 
felted together, that it might have been taken for a piece 
of fine cloth, a little worn, the tissue being so compact 
and close, that it would have been impossible to detach a 
particle of the materials without tearing the texture to 
pieces; yet was this only effected by the process which I 
have already described ; and it must be confessed that it 
was a work truly admirable, considering the instruments 
of the little mechanics.” 
THE ADDER. 
I once met with a man who employed himself in sum- 
mer in catching Adders, the fat of which he preserved and 
sold as a sovereign remedy for hurts and swellings, and 
some other parts of the animal went to the apothecaries to 
be used in their materia medica. This man in catching 
Adders used a forked stick and a shorter one. With the 
first he pinned the Adder to the ground, and killed it with 
the other. He was accompanied by a dog, who hunted 
for these animals, and who, when he had found one, con- 
trived generally to seize it by the middle, and shake it 
with so much rapidity against the sides of his head, that 
not one Adder in a hundred had time to bite him before 
he killed it. His owner, however, informed me, that 
when this happened his head instantly swelled, but the 
swelling was almost as quickly removed by rubbing it 
with some of the fat of Adders, which he always carried 
about with him for the purpose. Twenty-five Adders 
yielded about half a pound weight of fat. They feed on 
worms, mice, frogs, and young birds; and before the win- 
ter sets in, would appear to quit the open downs, where 
they are found in summer, for the neighbouring woods, 
as a woodman told me, he had found near sixty of them 
clustered together in a torpid state, in grubbing up an old 
tree in the woods. They will however hybernize, (if I 
may use the word,) with the common snake and the slow 
worm, each of these having been found with some vipers 
in a torpid state, a short time ago. The viper-catcher 
whom I met with assured me that he had frequently seen 
the young vipers take refuge in the inside of their mother 
by running into her mouth, which she opens for that pur- 
pose when danger is apprehended. He also assured me 
that they are produced alive, the ova being hatched in the 
inside of the mother, from which they probably creep, as 
they must do at a more advanced state, after they have 
made it their place of refuge.* He also informed me, that 
* The mode of parturition stated by the viper-catcher is generally 
supposed to be a vulgar error. He seemed, however, very confident 
that he was right. May not the viper, like the lizard, be ovo-vivipa- 
rous? Some naturalists are of the same opinion as the viper-catcher 
mentioned, viz., that the eggs are hatched in the womb. 
