RATTLESNAKE HISTORY. 277 



Guliemus Piso, Johnston, Merembergius, and * others that 

 have wrot of it, and its anatomy, under the names of 

 Boigininga or Boiginininga and Boiquira, which are its Brazile 

 Names. By the Portuguese it is called Casca vela and 

 Tangador : by the Dutch, Raetel Sclange ; by those of 

 Mexico, Teutlaco-cauehqui or Teuhtlacotl zauhqui, i.e. 

 Donima Scrpenhim : and from its swift motion on the Rocks 

 like the wind, Hoacoatl.* 



Minutely and scientifically was that 'viper with the 

 sounding tail' dissected and studied out by Dr. Tyson just 

 two hundred years ago ; and the excellent illustrations with 

 which his description was elucidated were subsequently used 

 in many first-class physiological works. 



Not even the ' pit ' escaped the notice of that nice 

 anatomist, — the * nasal fosse,' or ' sort of second nostril,' as it 

 was for a long while called, — and its use conjectured, and 

 which has given to a very large group of venomous serpents 

 the name of ' pit vipers,' the peculiar orifice not being 

 confined to the American Crotahis alone (see chap. xxi.). 



* Between the nostrils and eyes are two other orifices which 

 at first I took to be Ears,' he tells us, speaking of this * pit,' 

 ' but after found they only led into a Bone that had a pretty 

 large cavity, but no perforation.' He had seen that vipers 

 — the European vipers which he had previously known — 

 had not these orifices. Then he comments on the great Pro- 

 vision of Nature in furnishing the strong, smooth ' belly scales,' 

 (see illustration, p. 193), and the 'very long trachea of 20 

 inches. Nature is mightily provident in supplying them 

 with Air, in bestowing on them so large a Receptacle for 

 receiving it.' 



