ASCRIBED TO THE RATTLE-SNAKE, &c. 93 



eaten any thing for a confiderable time. We ought not 

 therefore, to fuppofe him poffefled of the fafcinating 

 faculty at this period ; fmce, I prefume, that this faeuhy, 

 did it exift at all, is fubfervient to the purpofe of pro- 

 curing the reptile its food. The fa£l is, perhaps, va- 

 luable in another point of view. It feems to fliow, it 

 does iliow, that the mephitick vapour proceeding from 

 the rattle-fnake, allowing that fuch a vapour really ex- 

 ifts, was, in no refpedl, injurious to the bird. 



If the mephitick vapour of the rattle-fnake were pro- 

 ductive of the effedts attributed to it by Mr. de la Ce- 

 pede, and other writers ; and, efpecially, if this vapour 

 extended its influence to animals fituated at a confiderable 

 diftance from the reptile, the atmofphere of the rattle- 

 fnake would often be a kind of Avernus, which many 

 animals would avoid, and which would generally oc- 

 cafion the ficknefs or death of thofe that were fo unfor- 

 tunate as to come within its fphere. But how different 

 is the cafe ! The abodes of the rattle-fnake are the fa- 

 vourite haunts of frogs, and many fpecies of birds, which 

 often pafs the feafons of their amours and generation in 

 clouds of mephitifm : uninjured, and undeftroyed. How 

 often has the rattle-fnake been known to continue, for 

 days, at the bottom of a tree, or even a fmall bulh, upon 

 the branches of which the thrufh or the cat -bird are rear- 

 ing their young ! This would be a fuitable fituation for 

 the mephitick vapour to exert its noxious influence ; but, 

 in our woods, fuch influence has never been perceived. 



Birds of the eagle and the hawk kind have been {een 

 to foar, for a confiderable time, above the fpot occupied 

 by a rattle-fnake, and at length to dart upon the reptile, 

 and carry it to their young. Neither the parent-bird nor 

 its young ones, have ever been known to receive any in- 

 jury from the fnake's vapour. PofTibly, it may be faid, 

 N this 



