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LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

at the friendly work. Nothing—only scorpions. That’sall. But what’s more, I found several of these aides-de-camp on my coverlet, and even on my pillow, hut I neverwas stung by them, and never after thought of their vicinity.I very much doubt whether the European scorpion haspowers of evil sufficient to inflict any serious injury on solarge an animal as man. Taking up a stone one day to killa viper, a scorpion that was under it, pressed by my fingers,pricked me on the tip of my little finger. It did not provemore painful than the sting of a bee; in fact, not near somuch. A man was certainly killed at Civitavecchia by thesting of a scorpion. But it was an African, and had comeamongst the firewood of a merchant vessel from Tangiers .The man had lain down to sleep upon the heap of wood, andwas stung on the back of the neck; a very unlucky part.He died also, as it appears, because the nature of hisailment was not known till it was too late, and the insectwas found amongst the wood where the man had slept.That scorpion would be called by the Turks the grandfatherof his tribe: it was, or rather is (for it is preserved in spiritsby Dr. Morrechini, of Rome) above four inches long, whilemy bedfellow scorpions of Patria were scarcely above aninch, or little more. If several scorpions are shut up toge-ther in a box, they will devour one another to the last.

The viper is the only poisonous serpent existing in Europe .There are two varieties, the red and the brown. They maybe distinguished at a glance from any other snake by theirsmall length in proportion to their thickness, and the abrupttermination of their tail; by their flat heart-shaped head,thin neck, and square cocked-up nose, The back is coveredfrom head to tail with rectangular, oblong, square, blackspots, those of one side the spine being in contact with theothers on the other side at the angles just like the blacksquares on a chess-board. But the most certain feature is