8, cap. 15), and in holes of
the earth, rotten stubs of trees, and amongst the dead leaves; but in
the heat of the summer they come abroad, and lie either round in heaps
or at length upon some hillock, or elsewhere in the grass. They are
found only in our woodland countries and highest grounds, where
sometimes (though seldom) a speckled stone called _echites_, in Dutch
_ein atter stein_, is gotten out of their dried carcases, which divers
report to be good against their poison.[5] As for our snakes, which in
Latin are properly named _angues_, they commonly are seen in moors,
fens, loam, walls, and low bottoms.
[3] Galenus, _De Theriaca ad Pisonem_; Pliny, lib. 10, cap.
62.--H.
[4] "The adder or viper alone among serpents brings forth not
eggs but living creatures."
[5] Sallust, cap. 40, Pliny, lib. 37, cap. 2.--H.
As we have great store of toads where adders commonly are found, so do
frogs abound where snakes do keep their residence. We have also the
slow-worm, which is black and greyish of colour, and somewhat shorter
than an adder.
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