Intelligence in Animals—Can a Viper Commit Suicide?

Abstract

HAVING occasionally caught a viper, and kept it for a time in a glass case, one of the platelayers called me last Thursday and said “there was a fine ‘Long Cripple’ (a local name for a serpent of any kind) lying on the bank a few yards down the line.” I went to the place indicated, and there was a very large viper basking in the sun, but when I got near, it began to move away, and to prevent its escape I gently pressed a stick across it while I sent the man to fetch a glass jar to secure it in; but when it found its progress arrested, it began in a very spiteful manner to dart its nose forward, striking at the stick and stones and anything that was within its reach, but I could not see that it opened its mouth to make a real bite; but when it found with all its wriggling and twisting it was unable to free itself, it turned its head round upon itself, and about four inches from the head it opened its jaws and gave itself a bite, and when the fangs were well into the skin, it gave an extra squeeze, as if it intended to make sure that the operation should be thoroughly and effectively performed. It then deliberately withdrew its fangs, and in so doing it turned its head first one way and then the other, so as to withdraw one fang at a time.