CHAPTER XVI. 



RATTLESNAKE HISTORY. 



FROM the peculiar rattling appendage with which this 

 snake is armed, it has excited the notice of European 

 explorers since the very first settlement of the American 

 Continent. Whenever a traveller attempted any printed 

 account of the New World and Its products, mention was 

 made of this ' viper with the bell.' 



By and by, in 1762, a live specimen was brought to 

 England, where it arrested the attention of the members of 

 the Royal Society and the scientific ' Chiruglons ' of the day. 



From this time the rattlesnake began to be honoured with 

 a literature of its own — one which equals if not exceeds in 

 interest that of any other ophidian history handed down to 

 us ; for Cleopatra's asp has its literature, and the Cobra 

 capella, and M'Leod's boa, and some few other distinguished 

 ophidians, but none so voluminous and Inexhaustible as 

 the American Crotahis with Its sonorous tail. 



And despite the attention of naturalists for above two 

 hundred years, it is not yet done with. First its rattle, then 



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