Viperidae

“ Violone, vē-ō-lō′nā, n. the largest kind of bass viol, having strings tuned an octave lower than the violoncello. [It.,—viola.]
Viper, vī′pėr, n. a genus of venomous snakes, representative of family Viperidæ—the Common Viper or adder being the only poisonous snake indigenous to Britain: loosely, any venomous serpent except a rattlesnake, any cobriform serpent: any base, malicious person.—adjs. Vī′perine, related to or resembling the viper; Vī′perish, like a viper; Vī′perous, having the qualities of a viper: venomous: malignant.—adv. ”

“ It was long believed to be an invariable rule for the Viperidæ to bring forth live young, the name Viper being derived from this well-known peculiarity, but it has now been ascertained that the South American Lachesis mutus, the Indo-Malay Lachesis monticola, and the African Causus and Atractaspis, lay eggs. All exclusively aquatic snakes, such as the Hydrophiinæ, are ovoviviparous, and thus dispensed from going on land for parturition.
87 The yolk entirely fills the eggshell; there is no albumen, or, if any exists, it is so much reduced as to easily escape observation. ”

“ The body may be somewhat rigid, as in some burrowing and ground snakes, not unlike in appearance to our Slow-worm and other limbless Lizards; or extremely flexible, as in many Pythons and Boas and in the Tree-snakes generally. This flexibility may be accompanied by a vertical compression of the body in relation with an arboreal existence, whilst sluggish snakes, such as most of the 9 Viperidæ, may be remarkable for the flattening of the body, which they may further increase when basking in the sun or in order to assume a more formidable appearance on the approach of an enemy. ”

“ The Opisthoglypha are of considerable morphological interest, since they connect the Colubridae with the Viperidae, the characteristic poisonous apparatus of which seems to have been derived from that of the Opisthoglypha by the reduction or shortening of the anterior portion of the maxillaries and the harmless teeth, so that the posterior or poison-fangs come to the front.
The Opisthoglypha comprise about three hundred species and are cosmopolitan, including Madagascar but excepting New Zealand. They contain truly terrestrial, arboreal, and thoroughly aquatic forms. ”

“ Fig. 2.—A, Maxillary bone and fangs of one of the Viperidæ (Vipera russellii) ; B, maxillary bone and fangs of one of the Colubridæ (Naja tripudians) ; C, maxillary bone and fangs of one of the Colubridæ (Bungarus fasciatus) ; D, maxillary bone and teeth of one of the non-poisonous Colubridæ (Ptyas mucosus) . (After Sir Joseph Fayrer.)
Certain species (Dipsas) have maxillary teeth which increase in size from front to rear; the longest teeth are grooved and serve for the better retention of prey, and also to impregnate it with saliva; but they are not in communication with the poison-glands. ”

“ The names that are given to it are hardly in accordance with its formation, for it is not very sluggish in its movements, although it can be easier taken than the lizard; while it is anything but blind, and its eyes, though small, are brilliant. Perhaps the epithets ought to have been applied to the givers, and not to the receiver.
As for the real snakes, there are but two species in England, one being called the Viper, or Adder, and the other the Ringed, or Grass-snake. The Viper is rather to be avoided, as it is possessed of poison-fangs, and if irritated, is not slow in using them. ”

“ This is the only native reptile that can, in any degree whatever, hurt a man. It is common in England, and, unlike the snake, prefers a dry place to a moist one. "Adder" and "viper" are two words applied to the same thing—adder being derived from the Saxon word for "nether," and viper from viviper; because this reptile, like our common lizard, hatches her eggs within the body, or is viviparous. Our viper is found all over Europe; not in Ireland. As for Ireland, it is an old boast with the Irish that Saint Patrick banned away all reptiles. ”

“ In much the same way, anticipations of the mammalian type occur pretty frequently among lower animals. Our commonest English lizard, for example, which frequents moors and sandhills, does not lay or deposit its eggs at all, but hatches them out in its own body, and so apparently brings them forth alive: while among snakes, the same habit occurs in the adder or viper. The very name viper, indeed, is a corruption of vivipara, the snake which produces living young. Still more closely do some birds resemble mammals in the habit of secreting a sort of milk for the sustenance of their nestlings. ”

“ In reality, one reptile doubles the parts, as an actor would say, being but a single snake under two disguises. The adder is remarkable for bringing forth its young alive, instead of hatching them out of eggs, like most typical serpents; and the very name viper is short for vivipara. As for the blind-worm, or slow-worm, who is also one animal masquerading under two aliases, he must not be considered a snake at all, being a legless lizard, who tries deceptively to pass himself off in serpent’s clothing. ”

“ Vipers are fond of basking on certain spots, on the top of a stone, the stump of a tree, or a patch of sand: a shower of rain or even passing clouds drive them back into their holes. They are eminently nocturnal, when they regularly "beat" their district, biting and paralysing their prey before swallowing it. A fire kindled at night is sure to draw vipers near; the same applies to other vipers, for instance Cerastes, which appears in perplexing {643}numbers at the camp-fire. They cannot climb, and they avoid going into water. ”

“ This is noticeable in the African ‘nose-horned viper’ (Vipera nasicornis) , p. 322, where they present a curiously complicated structure.
Too minute to examine except under the magnifying-glass, or to attempt to illustrate, we can convey only a general idea of these curious viper scales, which to the touch are spinous, and rough as a coarse brush. They must form an unpleasant perch for a bird, if it be true that the latter is enticed by the horns of some vipers to come and peck at them, as at a worm. ”

“ Viper.
Ringed Snake.
As you propose the good of mankind to be an object of your publications, you will not omit to mention common salad-oil as a sovereign remedy against the bite of the viper. As to the blind worm (Anguis fragilis, so-called because it snaps in sunder with a small blow) , I have found, on examination, that it is perfectly innocuous. [e6] A neighbouring yeoman (to whom I am indebted for some good hints) killed and opened a female viper about the 27th May: he found her filled with a chain of eleven eggs, about the size of those of a blackbird ”

“ When these reptiles wish to copulate, the viper goes down to the shore and hisses in the direction of the sea, which is a signal to the lamprey; she understands the sound, and issues from the water, but does not immediately hasten to her lover, knowing that he carries deadly poison in his teeth, but gliding up a rock, there waits until he has cleansed his mouth. After looking at one another for a space, the loving viper vomits forth the poison so dreaded by his mistress, and she upon perceiving this, descends and entwines him in her embrace, no longer dreading his amorous bite. ”

“ He opened the box, where lay coiled, and perfectly still, a spotted viper, an immense black snake, and one very light and silvery like an eel.
"Here's my family," said the old man; and catching the viper round the middle, brought him out, while the others wriggled a little, as if in expectation of being caressed in their turn. "This animal, signor, is not so bad in his temper as you have been told. It is only when he is making love that he is poisonous—to all but his females; but in this, gentlemen, he is scarcely worse than many of yourselves, whom it is not safe then to approach." ”

“ The young of the viper is born inside a membrane that bursts from off the young creature in three days; and at times the young viper eats its way out from the inside of the egg. The mother viper brings forth all its young in one day, twenty in number, and one at a time. The other serpents are externally oviparous, and their eggs are strung on to one another like a lady's necklace; after the dam has laid her eggs in the ground she broods over them, and hatches the eggs in the following year. ”

“ The Viper, on seeing the Mouse, followed it cautiously, striking a hind limb, which appeared to cause very little inconvenience to the Mouse; the Viper, however, still following up, struck again, this time fairly across the loins, and then retired to the further part of the case, seemingly to await results. In less than two minutes the Mouse was dead. Soon the Viper came slowly towards the body, with head lowered, prodding the earth as if smelling the track of its prey, and, although the body was completely hidden by grassy turf, went straight to it. ”

“ Among the true vipers, Russell's viper (Daboia russelii) is associated with the highest morbidity and mortality. In Anuradhapura District, Sri Lanka, up to 73% of all admitted snake bites are attributed to this species [15] whose distribution extends north to the Indus valley of Pakistan and Kashmir, to the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal and Bhutan and to Bangladesh in the east. Saw-scaled vipers (Echis carinatus and E. sochureki) are other very important viperine species that inhabit open and dry environments. ”

“ There every one ought to know that the latter is harmless, and that it is easily distinguished from the viper, which is poisonous. Curiously, too, the blind-worm or slow-worm, which, although not now ranked by naturalists among true serpents, but among the lizards, agrees with serpents in general appearance, and is in many places regarded with the utmost dread, being popularly believed to be as venomous as the viper itself. This is the case equally where it is common, as it is in many parts of England, and in Scotland where it is rare and found in comparatively few localities. ”

“ Accidents from Viper bites are rare in this country, where people go about well shod, and there are very few cases of authenticated death from this cause. On the Continent, however, such cases are frequent; and it is suggested that in the warmer parts of Europe, where bare feet are more numerous, the Viper's venom may also be more active than it is here. It is the toes or fingers that are most likely to be bitten, for the Viper's mouth is not large enough to enable it to bite the larger parts. ”

“ Yet, as there is a notable gradation in the development of the poison apparatus, the perfection of which culminates in the viper, it seems not unreasonable to decide that as a rule a viper is more virulent than an elaps of the same size—let us say bulk, because the viperine snakes are short and thick and the elapidæ long and slight. Each snake is supplied with venom adequate to its own requirements, that is, enough to kill the [537] prey on which it subsists, a large viper with a larger supply for a larger animal; and a small elaps with enough to kill its little bird or mouse. ”

“ My friend was a member of a Natural History Society, as was also the gentleman who had found the so-called ‘viper.’ His hobby being geology rather than zoology, he had been breaking and turning over fragments of rock in a sort of dell, when he had discovered the harmless little creature, which he—a scholarly man, by the way—would have immediately put to death, as a dangerous viper, had not my friend—also a learned man, though not versed in snakes—reserved it for me, and with much caution transferred it to a tin box. ”

“ More perilous even than these animals, to the wanderer in the forest, are the innumerable serpents that lurk beneath the accumulation of dead leaves bestrewing the ground. The most deadly is a small viper about ten inches long, the only species of the viper family as yet discovered in South America. ”

“ It seems to delight most in those places that are haunted by the cerastes, or horned viper. Nature has certainly imposed this dangerous neighbourhood upon the one for the good and advantage of the other, and that of mankind in general. Of the many trials I made, I never found a Jerboa in the body of a viper, excepting once in that of a female big with young, and the Jerboa itself was then nearly consumed. ”

“ Warm heaths and banks exposed to the sun are the places which they frequent. The common snake, on the other hand, loves water, or may be found in a hay-field or near an old barn or on a dung-heap. The snake lays eggs and leaves them to be hatched by the heat of the dung or the rays of the sun, taking no care whatever for her progeny. The viper, on the contrary, brings forth her young alive and tends them carefully, even allowing them, according to fairly well-accredited narratives, to retreat in case of danger into her mouth and gullet. ”

“ Vipera.—The head is covered with small scales and a few larger shields. The eye is separated from the labials by small scales; the nasals are in contact with the rostral shield or separated by one naso-rostral. The scales of the body are strongly keeled; two rows of subcaudals on the short tail. This genus of about ten species with numerous local varieties ranges over Europe, Asia and the greater part of Africa. ”

“ The viper-catcher provides himself with a cleftstick, and stealing up to the reptile when basking, pins his head to the ground with the cleft, and seizing the tail, throws the reptile into a bag. As they do not destroy the fangs, these men are frequently bitten in the pursuit of their business, but their remedy is either the fat of vipers, or salad oil, which they take inwardly, and apply externally, after squeezing the wound. We are not aware of any well-authenticated fatal case in man from a viper bite, but it fell to our lot some years ago to see a valuable pointer killed by one. ”