204 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
“ The kindness of Providence seems exerted, not only in diminishing the 
speed, but also the fertility of this dangerous creature. They copulate in May, 
and are supposed to be about three months before they bring forth, and have 
seldom above eleven eggs at a time. These are of the size of a blackbird’s 
egg, and chained together in the womb like a string of beads. Each egg con¬ 
tains from one to four young ones; so that the whole of a brood may amount 
to about twenty or thirty. They continue in the womb till they come to such 
perfection as to be able to burst from their shell; and they are said by their 
own efforts to creep from their confinement into the open air, where they con¬ 
tinue for several days without taking any food whatsoever. ‘ We have been 
assured,’ says Mr. Pennant, ‘ by intelligent people, of the truth of a fact, that 
the young of the viper , when terrified, will run down the throat of the 
parent and seek shelter in its belly, in the same manner as the young of the 
opossum retire into the ventral pouch of the old ones. From this,’ continues 
he, ‘ some have imagined that the viper is so unnatural as to devour its own 
3'-oung; but this deserves no credit, as these animals live upon frogs, toads, 
lizards, and young birds, which they often swallow whole, though the morsel 
is often three times as thick as their own body.’ 
“ It does not always confine its voracity within the limits of its powers 
of deglutition; for I have in • my possession a specimen of a small viper 
which was taken on Poole Heath 
in Dorsetshire, in a dying state, 
in the act of swallowing a mouse 
which was too large for it, the 
skin of the neck being so dis¬ 
tended as to have burst in sev¬ 
eral places. . 
“ The viper , like other rep- 
tilia, seeks a secret and secure 
place in which to hibernate dur¬ 
ing the cold months of the year. Here several are found entwined together, 
and in a very torpid condition; and if at this period a viper be made to 
wound an animal with its poison-fang, no injury is likely to result from it; 
the poison either does not exist at all, or it is inert.” 
The viper is not alone peculiar to England, but may be found distributed 
throughout Europe, and I saw one during my travels in Siberia a few miles 
west of Lake Baikal, by which, I conclude, the species described are scattered 
over Asia. 
The India Viper, however, of which there are two species, does not greatly 
resemble its European congener. One of these species, the Daboia russelli , 
popularly called by the natives Ticpolonga (spotted snake), is nocturnal in its 
habits, and being very numerous, while exciting no reverential respect, it is 
very much dreaded by the people, and equally so by visiting Europeans who 
have given to it the name Cobra monil , because its venom is regarded as 
being next ’ powerful to that of the cobra. Generally the color of this species 
is brown on the back with three rows of transverse rings edged with white, 
while the sides are marbled or pale yellow. Its usual length is from four to 
five feet. The second species, known as Echis carinata , differs very materially 
from that of the ticpolonga , in that it seldom exceeds two feet in length, and the 
RING-NECKED ADDER. 
