1853.] 419 



that many names and synonyms which have been given to C. dryinaa will also 

 be common to C. durissus. The name of adamanteus must be changed to 

 that of terrificus^ as this last has the priority in date by thirty years. Others 

 may think otherwise but 



Rumpat et serpens iter institutum, 



Si per obliquum similis sagitta 



Terruit mannos. 



A few words concerning the habits of these serpents. Their vaunted gene- 

 rosity in giving warning to those who approach them, is a ridiculous fable ; in 

 most cases they inflict their deadly wounds without sounding an alarm, and show 

 themselves extremely vicious by making unprovoked attacks upon every thing 

 that comes within their reach. With regard to their venom and the many anti- 

 dotes which at different limes have been pronounced infallible, I can safely de- 

 clare that, in no instance where the fang has entered the body so as to penetrate 

 one of the larger veins, has a recovery been known. Inevitable death is the 

 consequence. They tell us that they cannot hurt deer or swine ; the reason 

 is obvious ; the first has long legs with scarcely any muscular substance on them, 

 and therefore no veins of any size; and in the case of the other, no snake's fang 

 is long enough to pass through the skin and fat so as to meet a part obnoxious to 

 the poison. I should have observed before, that a complete solution of the blood 

 in the whole body is the immediate cause of death from the bite of a Crotalus. 



Palisot de Beauvois, in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 

 has said, that these snakes have no fetid odor emanating from them ; that in the 

 presence of any number of them, no disagreeable smell is perceptible. On the 

 contrary, I know from repeated experience, that their vicinity may generally be 

 discovered by the fetor w^hich they exhale, and that it is so strong when proceed- 

 ing from one that is enraged, as to occasion a considerable degree of sickness of 

 some hours duration. Most snakes emit a smell by no means pleasant ; this has 

 always been known, and is stronger and more deleterious in those which are 

 venomous than in those which are not. ^lartial, in one of his epigrams, says : 



Quod vulpes fuga, viperae cubile 



Mallemquam quod oles olere Bassa. 



There is another fact connected with these snakes as well as many others, 

 which has been the subject of much discussion. I allude to what has been called 

 the power of charming smaller animals upon which they prey. This has been 

 attributed to some secret fascinating power in the serpent. It has also been 

 attributed to the fright experienced at the sight of so formidable an enemy. If 

 it be said that the bird or the squirrel, in this predicament, fixedly gazed upon by 

 the terrible eyes of the serpent, could easily make its escape, the answer is, that 

 the unaccountable behaviour of the poor victim arises from its anxiety for its 

 young. The only instances in which I have seen snakes endeavoring to get pos- 

 session of birds, was at a time of the year when they had no young to take care of. 

 Squirrels generally have their nests on such lofty trees in our forests, that it is 

 very doubtful whether a snake's range of vision could reach so far, therefore, it 

 must be sonriething more than fear which can brins a squirrel down from his se- 

 cure habitation, one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet from the ground, to 

 become the easy and unresisting prey of a serpent. If he should be surprised on 

 the ground, what prevents him from ascending the next tree and soon losing him- 

 self among the foliage of those which are in the neighborhood. I do not attempt 

 to explain the thing, but call the attention of the reader of these observations to 

 the behaviour of cats to birds, and of cats and dogs to men when they wish to 

 obtain any thing from them. If there is any fascination in the steadfast gaze of 

 the eyes, they attempt to employ it upon us. 



It may not be out of the way at the end of these lines, to correct an error 

 which is now current among naruralists, which is, that the fangs in the genus 

 Elaps are always and permanently perpendicular, and not laid back as in other 

 venomous serpents. This is not the case. Upon examining fresh killed speci- 

 mens, I find them placed exactly as they are in a rattlesnake, and erected in the 

 same way when they wish to bite, that is by throwing back a part of the upper 



