ASCRIBED TO THE RATTLE-SNAKE, c^c. 87 



defcend from their trees, and leverets run into its jaws. 

 Terror and amazement feem to lay hold on thefe little 

 animals : they make violent efforts to get away, ftill 

 keeping their eyes fixed on thofc of the fnake ; at length, 

 wearied with their movements, and frightened out ot 

 all capacity of knowing the courfe they ought to take, 

 become at length the prey of the expecting devourer, 

 probably in their laft convulfive motion." * 



My friend Mr. de la Cepede, one of the moft eloquent 

 naturalifts of the age, has devoted a good deal of atten- 

 tion to the fubjedl, in his Hifioire Naturelle des Serpens, 

 a work of extenfive and fuperior merit. I regret, how- 

 ever, that this ingenious author was not in polfeffion of a 

 few fads, well known in this country, which could not 

 have failed to condudl a mind, like his, fl:rengthened by 

 the enlarged contemplation of the objects of nature, to 

 the fulnefs and certainty of truth. As it is, however, 

 Mr. de la Cepede deferves our thanks for reviving, and 

 giving a new turn to, the fpeculations of naturalifts on 

 this fubjedl. 



I beg leave, in this place, to quote that part of Mr. 

 de la Cepede's work which relates to the quellion of my 

 memoir. 



Speaking of the boiquira, or rattle-fnake, my in- 

 genious friend has the following words : " His infedious 

 breath, which fometimes agitates the little animals he is 

 about to feize, may alfo prevent their cfcape. The In- 

 dians relate, that a rattle-fnake is often feen, curled round 

 a tree, darting terrible glances at a fquirrel, which after 

 exprefTmg its fear by its cries and its tremcur, falls at the 

 loot of the tree, where it is devoured. Mr. Vofmaer 

 (at the Hague), who has made feveral experiments on 

 the bite of a rattle-fnake, which he had alive, fays that 



* Ardic Zoology, vol. ii.p. 338. London: 1792. 



M 2 the 



