is so with many more sorts of birds that are not granivorous.

I am, etc.

LETTER XXXI.

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.

LETTER XXXII.

Castration has a strange effect: it emasculates both man, beast, and
bird, and brings them to a near resemblance of the other sex. Thus
eunuchs have smooth, unmuscular arms, thighs, and legs; and broad hips,
and beardless chins, and squeaking voices. Gelt stags and bucks have
hornless heads, like hinds and does. Thus wethers have small horns, like
ewes; and oxen large bent horns, and hoarse voices when they low, like
cows: for bulls have short straight horns; and though they mutter and
grumble in a deep, tremendous tone, yet they low in a shrill high key.
Capons have small combs and gills, and