Unable to find out the natural cause, which has peopled the African deserts with vermin both so numerous and so poisonous, the poet refers their origin to a well known fable, and thus leaves his reader pleased, but not enlightened.

Serpents differ very much in size. The boa of Surinam grows to the length of thirty-seven feet. In the isle of Java we are told of Serpents measuring fifty feet in length, and in the British Museum there is a skin of one thirty-two feet long. Pliny the Elder assures us, that he saw the skin of that enormous Serpent which opposed the passage of Regulus and his army on the banks of the Bagrada; it measured a hundred and twenty feet.

Many Indians, and some jugglers of the south of France, tame these creatures, and teach them to dance; an art very well known and highly esteemed among the ancients, who took it for a sort of sorcery. David mentions it in the fifty-eighth Psalm, where he says: They are like the deaf Adder, that stoppeth her ear: which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely."

Is a venomous animal, a species of serpent, that seldom exceeds the length of two or three feet; it is of a dirty yellow colour with black spots, and the belly entirely black; the head is nearly figured in the shape of a lozenge, and much thicker than the body. Unlike all others of the serpent kind, the Viper is viviparous, yet it is ascertained that the eggs are produced and hatched in the body of the mother.

The Reverend Mr. White of Selborne, in company with a friend, surprised a large female Viper, which, as she lay on the grass, basking in the sun, seemed very heavy and bloated. They killed and opened her, and found in the abdomen fifteen young ones, 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 they were disengaged from the body of the parent. They twisted and wriggled about, set themselves up, and gaped very wide when touched with a stick; exhibiting manifest tokens of menace and defiance, though as yet no fangs were to be discovered, even by the help of glasses. That young Vipers, for some time after their birth,

young

retreat, when suddenly alarmed, into the mouth of the female, in the same manner as the of the opossum do into the abdominal pouch of their parent, seems a fact satisfactorily ascertained. Vipers attain their full growth in seven years; they feed on frogs, toads, lizards, and other animals of this kind; it is even asserted that they catch mice and small birds, a food of which they seem very fond. The teeth of the Viper are surrounded with a small bladder containing poison. There is no doubt but this poison, which appears to have been infused into the jaws of the Viper and other serpents by Providence, as a means of revenge upon their enemies, is so harmless to the animal himself, that when swallowed by him it only serves to accelerate his digestion; and, indeed, if the venom were hurtful to the Viper when he swallows it, how could he masticate frogs and mice without breaking the baneful bladder, and being injured by the poisonous liquor? The Viper is very patient of hunger, and may be kept more than six months without food. When in confinement, the Viper requires, or tastes, no food, and the sharpness of its poison decreases in proportion.

It is a native of many parts of this island, chiefly in the dry and chalky counties. The flesh of the Viper was formerly used for broth, and much esteemed in medicine, particularly to restore debilitated constitutions. It has, however, of late years, lost much of its ancient credit, and is very rarely prescribed by modern practitioners. The best remedy against the bite is to suck the wound, which may be done without danger, and after this to rub it with sweet oil, and poultice it with bread and milk.

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THIS particular kind of asp has a pointed and solid horn on each eyelid; its body is of a pale yellowish or grayish colour, with distant subovate transverse brown spots; and in length it is from one to two feet. It appears to be in some measure domesticated in Egypt, where it enters houses when the family are at table, picks up the crumbs from the floor, and retires without doing any injury to the company. This is very likely the snake which gave origin to the fable of Esculapius having appeared under that form in a small island of the Tiber.

The Hooded Serpent is from three to eight feet long, with two long fangs hanging out of the upper jaw. It has a broad neck, and a mark of dark brown on the forehead; which, when viewed frontwise, looks like a pair of spectacles; but behind, like the head of a cat. The eyes are fierce and full of fire; the head is small, and the nose flat, though covered with very large scales, of a yellowish ash colour; the skin is white, and the large tumour on the neck is flat, and covered with

oblong smooth scales. The bite of this animal is said to be incurable, the patient dying in about an hour after the wound; the whole frame being dissolved into one putrid mass of corruption. This serpent is supposed to be the Cockatrice of the Scriptures.

Is the largest of all English serpents, sometimes exceeding four feet in length. The colour of the body is variegated with yellow, green, white, and regular spots of brown and black. They seem to enjoy themselves when basking in the sun, at the foot of an old wall, as if consciously exposing the beauty of their versicolored scales to the rays of light. This animal is perfectly innoxious, although many reports have been circulated and believed to the contrary; it feeds on frogs, worms, mice, and various kinds of insects, and passes the greater part of the winter in a state of torpidity. In the spring they re-appear, and at this season uniformly cast their skins. This is a process that they also seem to undergo in autumn. Mr. White says: "About the middle of September we found in a field, near a hedge, the slough of a large Snake, which seemed to have been newly cast. It appeared as if turned wrong side outward, and as if it had been