"There is another viper!" he exclaimed.
"No, it is only a snake," said Frank, coolly stooping down and taking the snake in his hand, while it coiled about his arm. Dick looked horrified.
"Won't it bite?" he said.
"No, Dick. Don't you know the difference between a snake and a viper? Then I'll tell you. The viper is ash-brown in colour. Its neck is narrower and its head broader in proportion. The viper has a couple of fangs, or long hollow teeth, which lie flat along the back of its mouth, but when it is angry it opens its mouth, erects its teeth and strikes with them. They are hollow, and down through the tubes the poison comes from a bag at their roots. The snake has no such teeth, and it is harmless, for it cannot sting, as many country people think it can, with its long forked tongue which it is now shooting out. Then the snake lays eggs. I dare say if we were to dig in the manure-heaps in the farm-yard, we should find a lot of white eggs covered with a tough, soft skin and joined together with a sort of glue. The viper's eggs are hatched inside it, and the young ones are born alive."
"I have read that the young ones of the viper will run down their parent's throat when alarmed for safety. Is that true?"
"It seems so strange that I can scarcely think it to be true, but so many respectable people say they have seen it that one does not like to say that it is not so; and it is, of course, difficult to prove a negative. I suppose the question will be settled some day."
The snake Frank held in his hand was a large and handsome one. It was olive-grey in colour, with rows of black spots on its back and sides, and greenish-yellow beneath, tinged with black. The snake changes its skin just like a caterpillar, but the skin preserves the shape of the snake, and is a very pretty object. Often have I seen a sunny corner in a quiet wood covered with many of these cast-off skins all glittering in the sunlight; and they are so very like real snakes as easily to deceive the casual observer.
During the winter both vipers and snakes hybernate in holes, or under tree-roots, and require no food.
The slow-worm or blind-worm is often mistaken for the snake. It is about twelve inches long, with a smooth skin, and is dull brown in colour. It possesses a curious faculty of parting with its tail when it chooses. If it is seized by the hand or otherwise annoyed, the tail separates from the body and commences a series of war-dances on its own account. While you are occupied in observing this, the body quietly and expeditiously moves away out of danger. Snakes and vipers live on frogs, small birds, &c., when they can catch them. The slow-worm lives almost entirely upon the white garden-slug.