I am, etc.
Letter XXXI
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, April 29, 1776.
Dear Sir,
On 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, fifteen 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,
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 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.
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