SELBORNE, _April_ 29_th_, 1776.
Dear Sir,--On August 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,
fifteen in number; the shortest of which measured full seven inches, and
were about the size of full-grown earth-worms. 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, showing manifest tokens of menace and defiance,
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 a 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 a lamb will
push with their heads before their 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 scissors.
There was little room to suppose that this brood had ever been in the
open air before; and that they were taken in for refuge, at the mouth of
the dam, when she perceived that danger was approaching; because then
probably we should have found them somewhere in the neck, and not in the
abdomen.