THE RATTLE. 313 



snakes to vibrate the rattle for hours at a time ; and probably, 

 if there were opportunities of becoming more intimately- 

 acquainted with crotaline idiosyncrasies, we should discover 

 some snakes to be more or less afflicted with temper, 

 nervousness, terror, or other emotions which induce an animal 

 to express its feelings in its own way. 



But the most remarkable peculiarity in this snake is that 

 no other way is in its power : a rattlesnake never hisses. 

 Throughout the numerous arguments, theories, explanations, 

 and suggestions, there is such an absence of allusion to this 

 fact that we must suppose it to be very little known. Says 

 Dumeril in describing les petits etuis comes, compare a celni 

 que feraieiit plusietirs grelots pen sonores : ^ Les Cro tales 

 different de tons les antres serpents connus par la faculty qu' ils 

 ont de produire des sons sourds et rapides^ cti plntot des bruits 

 contimis et prolongh a Vaide dun organe special^ qui snplcerait 

 — pour ainsi dire — a la voix, dont ces seipents sont toiijours 

 prives' ^ But the sibilations of the rattle are often so like 

 hissing that they have been compared to the whistling of 

 wind among the leaves, to the escape of water through a pipe, 

 to the whizzing of insects, the rattling of seed pods, and many 

 similar sounds, showing at the same time the character of the 

 noise and its variability. 



Concisely recapitulating what this rattle does, we under- 

 stand that in the first place it is a substitute for the voice — 

 so far as hissing can be called voice ; and that what would 

 cause other excessively nerv^ous, timid, terrified snakes to hiss, 

 causes the rattle to vibrate. It may attract insectivorous 

 birds ; it may alarm other timid creatures ; it may summon its 



^ Erpetologie gencj-ale, tome vii. p. 1456. 



