THE CROTALID^. 3^9 



classification, some of his observations will be welcome. 

 One very noteworthy result is that the Crotalus does 

 occasionally produce a sound independently of the rattle. 

 Not a prolonged hiss, or by any means so loud as the 

 innocent snakes, but merely 'the expiration of air from 

 the lungs just before striking.' I have never observed 

 or heard this in our London rattlesnakes, but it no doubt 

 is of the same character and degree of sound as that 

 produced by the Cerastes and the little Echis, and which 

 more resembled a short, feeble, spitting sound. Still, 

 as we are informed by Dumeril that rattlesnakes are 

 'deprived of voice,' it is interesting to know that, on the 

 authority of Dr. Weir Mitchel, some slight sound, though 

 not a regular hiss, does sometimes accompany the action 

 of striking. 



An inquiry has lately met the eye in one of our scientific 

 journals as to whether a rattlesnake drinks. Dr. Mitchel 

 clears away all doubts on that subject by impressing upon 

 those who keep these creatures the importance of giving 

 them plenty of water, particularly when changing the 

 skin. Deprived of it, the cuticle comes off* unhealthily — 

 desquamates, in fact, in bits. At the casting of the cuticle, 

 or previous to the process, they will not only drink, he 

 tells us, but lie for hours in the water. When they were 

 disinclined to eat, and had fasted long enough to en- 

 danger their health, he fed them by force with milk and 

 insects, and the way he managed was to get their mouths 

 open and insert a tunnel a safe distance down their throat. 

 While held in this position, a repast consisting of insects 

 and milk was pushed down the tube of the tunnel in 



