Some Serpents are _carnivorous_, and feed on Flesh; others are _verminivorous_, and feed on Reptiles: Their Sustenance is various, suited to their several Constitutions, and Nature of the Climates, where they inhabit. Vipers and Adders feed on Herbs, Weeds, Dews, as well as upon Lizards, Mice, Frogs.—When they take Food into their Mouths, they raise up their Bodies a little, that they may swallow their Prey with less difficulty. They swallow those little Animals whole without chewing. In a Viper dissected by a certain Gentleman, he found three large Mice, intire, without any Change of their Form by hard Compressure. _Scorpions_ live chiefly upon Locusts, and other winged Insects. In _Arabia_, ’tis said, they feed upon _Balsam-Juices_, and seem to delight much in the Shadow of that Tree[17]. Footnote 17: _Conrad, Gesner._ 85. It is remarkable, that Nature has provided young Vipers with poisonous Teeth grown to Perfection, commensurate to their Bulk, that so they may immediately feed themselves, by being able, in some measure, to kill their Prey as soon as they are born. Some of these Animals have temporary Parts, as the _Lacerta Aquatica_, a little Water-Serpent, which, when young, has four ramified Fins, to poise and keep its Body upright, (which gives it the Resemblance of a young Fish) and these fall off when the Legs are grown: So Frogs and Toads, in their _Tadpole State_, have Tails, which fall off when their Legs are grown out[18]. These pass through various Transmigrations, before they arrive at their perfect State. Footnote 18: _Derham’s Phys. Theol._ B. IV. ---------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION V. As Serpents differ in Kind, so in Size; the Length to which some of them grow is most surprizing. A certain Number is sent out with little Bodies; others are of monstrous Bulk, and capable of making the strongest Efforts against all the Attempts made to destroy them; yea, are strong enough to contend with _Elephants_, the greatest of Animals, and conquer them. _e. gr._ _ATTILIUS REGULUS_, the _Roman_ General in _Africa_, is said to encounter a Serpent in that Country, of vast Strength and Stature, near the River _Bagrada_, 120 Feet long, which he and his Army could not subdue, without discharging all their Engines of War against it; and, when conquered and flea’d, its Skin was conveyed to _Rome_ in Triumph[19]. This is the more credible, says _Pliny_, because, in _Italy_, we see other Serpents, called _Boæ_, so large that in the Reign of _Claudius_, there was one of them killed in the _Vatican_, within whose Belly was found an Infant whole[20]. Footnote 19: _Prœlium grands & acre eumque magna totius exercitus conflictatione, balistis atque catapultis diu oppugnatum—Ejusque interfecti longum corium pedes 120. Aul. Gellii Noct. Att._ _Liber_ VI. _Cap._ iii. Footnote 20: _Nat. Hist._ B. VIII. _Cap._ xiv.