BREATHING AND HISSING OF SNAKES. 153 



power. I have seen one flatten its head so slightly as to be 

 barely noticeable, but I never heard it ' hiss.' 



' Its spots become visibly brighter through rage,' wrote 

 Carver in 1796, 'and at the same time it blows from its 

 mouth with great force a subtle wind that is reported to be 

 of a nauseous smell.' Chateaubriand, of course, had some- 

 thing to say of ' the hissing snake,' frequent in the warmer 

 States of America. 'When approached it becomes flat, 

 appears of different colours, and opens its mouth hissing. 

 Great caution is necessary not to enter the atmosphere 

 which surrounds it. It decomposes the air, which, im- 

 prudently inhaled, induces languor. The person wastes 

 away, the lungs are affected, and in the course of four 

 months he dies of consumption ! ' Of another snake this 

 author says, ' He hisses like a mountain eagle, he bellows 

 like a bull ! ' 



It may be objected, 'Why occupy space by quoting such 

 old wives' fables } ' I reply, because they have already been 

 so abundantly quoted ; and to such fables are in great part 

 due the erroneous impressions which exist to the present 

 day. Several members of the Heterodon family have from 

 time to time been in our London collection. Friends of 

 mine have had Heterodons in their keeping as pets ; 

 I have often handled them, and found them gentle and 

 inoffensive in every way. They are indeed so popularly 

 and peculiarly interesting that they will claim a page pre- 

 sently, the present chapter being devoted exclusively to 

 ophidian lungs, not human lungs, supposed to be destroyed 

 by them ! 



While admitting various degrees and qualities of hissing, 



