THE RATTLE. 295 



long ago as 1722.^ The most reasonable clue to this is, 

 that there may be less to disturb the reptile at a time when 

 all animated nature is to a certain extent inclined to 

 retirement and repose ; for if the reptile be disturbed, rain 

 or no rain, the rattle vibrates. In English as well as in 

 American scientific journals, the subject of the rattle is ever 

 and again ventilated by physiologists, and new suggestions 

 are thrown out. In the present chapter I will endeavour to 

 give a sort of digest of all these theories, venturing to offer 

 in addition the results of my own observations. Appended 

 is a drawing of the first rattle I ever saw or had in my 

 possession. It is associated with a delightful visit of 

 several months to some very dear friends in Iowa, and it 

 recalls more particularly one lovely September afternoon. 

 We were driving along a wild country road, where the 

 prairie on either side was radiant with its floral carpet, and 

 where the Mississippi gleamed like a succession of lakes 

 between the wooded and picturesque bluffs that formed the 

 background to the east. 



Suddenly the horses refused to advance, and without 

 any visible reason to me ; but the friend who was driving 

 us recognised, in what seemed to be merely a little dry twig 

 in the middle of the road, nothing less than a young rattle- 

 snake. 



Now, to see a rattlesnake and to hear its rattle had been 

 the great ambition of my prairie sojourn, and as my friend 

 threw the reins to his wife and alighted to deal a death- 

 blow, I entreated him to spare it for a few minutes only 



1 See Philosophical Transactions, vol. xxxii. A paper on the Crotalus, by Paul 

 Dudley, Esq. 



