392 SAL4A'£S. 



but the creature so near the spring, was so ready at the 

 instant with its aim made, that it leapt and struck i\Ir. CatHn 

 probably on the very spot where it would have bitten him 

 had the sportsman missed his mark. The bleeding trunk 

 had printed its stroke with blood, driving the stain through 

 the dress to the skin. ' How curious it is,' ]\Ir. Catlin remarks 

 at the conclusion of his narrative, ' that if you cut off the 

 head of a rattlesnake, its body will live for hours, and jump 

 at you if you touch it with a stick, when if you break his 

 spine near the tail, with even a feeble blow, it is dead in a 

 minute. This we proved on several occasions.' 



Mr. Catlin also helps to confirm what has been already 

 stated in these pages, viz. the certainty of the mate being 

 within hearing of the rattle, and responding when one of 

 them sounds an alarm ; also that 'they can track each other 

 and never lose company, though when met are not always 

 seen together, so that if we kill one over-night and leave 

 its dead body, the other will be found by its side in the 

 morning.' 



A near relative of the rattlesnake is the ' copper-head,' 

 TrigonocepJiahis contortrix of the United States, known also 

 as the ' Red adder,' and the ' Dumb rattlesnake.' It is the 

 Boa contortrix of Linnaeus, who, as we explained above, and 

 also in chap, ii., divided the Ophidia into only three or 

 four families, calling an immense number, both venomous and 

 harmless, ' boas.' 



This member of the Crotalidcz is said to be as venomous as 

 the rattlesnake, and is much more dreaded, because it has no 

 rattle to give warning of its proximity. When a bitten person 

 survives, the effects of its bite are said to be felt annually, as 



