108 ON THE PHYSIOGNOMY OF SERPENTS. 



curious not to merit some attention, as it shews how a fact, 

 true or supposed, may be so spread as to become popular. 

 Many causes might have given rise to the origin of the 

 pretended power of fascination of serpents. It is true that 

 most animals appear absolutely ignorant of the danger 

 M'hich menaces them, when thev find themselves in the 

 presence of enemies as cruel as serpents ; we often see 

 them walk over the bodies of those reptiles, pick at their 

 head, bite them, or lie doAvn familiarly beside them : but 

 we need not also deny, that an animal, unexpectedly sur- 

 prised, attacked by so formidable an adversary, seeing his 

 menacing attitude, his movements performed with such 

 celerity, may be so seized with fear, as, at the first mo- 

 ment, to be deprived of its faculties, and rendered inca- 

 pable of avoiding the fatal blow, which is inflicted at the 

 moment when it perceives itself assailed. Mr Barton 

 Smith, in a memoir expressly written to refute all that 

 has been advanced on the fascination of the rattlesnake, 

 relates several instances which prove that birds do not 

 shew themselves afraid, except when the serpent approaches 

 their nests to seize their young. Then one may see the 

 terrified parents fly around their enemy, uttering plaintive 

 cries, just as our warblers do when any one stops in the vi- 

 cinity of their nests. It may also be, that the animals 

 which it is pretended had been seen fluttering around the 

 snake, and at last falling into his mouth, have been already 

 wounded by his poison-fangs ; a supposition which per- 

 fectl)^ corresponds to the way in which venomous serpents 

 master their prey. Many tree-snakes seize their prey by 

 twisting their slender tails around their victim : Dam- 

 pier* has several times been a witness of this spectacle : 

 observing a bird flapping its wings, and uttering cries, 

 wdthout flying, this traveller perceived that the poor bird 

 w^as locked in the folds of a snake, when he attempt- 

 ed to lay hold of it. RussELt presented one day a fowl 

 to a Dipsas, and the bird in a short time gave signs of 

 death ; not conceiving how the bite of a snake not poison- 



* Voyages, iii. p. 275. t Russel, i. p. 20. 



