96 Of the FASCINATING FACULTY 



time than any fmall animals are known to live after a 

 fuccefsful bite by the rattle-fnake. But, perhaps, it may 

 be (aid, that the rattle-fnake, like fome of our wafps, 

 knows how to injedl.into the animal, which he means 

 to devour, any given quantity of his fubtile poilon. 

 Here, the analogy will not apply : but I have not time 

 to point out the various inftances in which its failure is 

 confpicuous. 



Kalm mentions a w^ell-known fa£t, which will be ad- 

 mitted to have confiderable weight in deftroying the 

 force of this part of Mr. de la Cepede's fyftem. " The 

 fquirrel being upon the point of running into the Inake's 

 mouth, the fpedtators have not been able to let it come 

 to that pitch, but killed the fnake, and as foon as it had 

 got a mortal blow, the fquirrel or bird deftined for de- 

 ftruftion, flew away, and left off their moanful note, as 

 if they had broke loofe from a net. Some fay, that if 

 they only touched the fnake, fo as to draw off its atten- 

 tion from the fquirrel ; it went off quickly, not flopping 

 till it had got to a great diftance. " Why" continues our 

 author, " do the fquirrels or birds go away fo fuddenly 

 and w^hy no fooner ? If they had been poifoned or bitten 

 by the fnake before, fo as not to be able to get from the 

 tree, and to be forced to approach the fnake always more 

 and more, they could however not get new flrength by 

 the fnake being killed or diverted."* 



Secondly. It is a fadl well known in this country, 

 that the rattle-fnake is not the only kind of ferpent that 

 is faid to be endued with the faculty of fafcinating birds, 

 Iquirrels, and other animals. As far as my inquiries 

 have extended, it does not appear to me that, in general, 

 the rattle-fnake is thought to have fo large a portion of 



* Travels into North-America, &c. vol. ii. p. 209 & 210. It will bs 

 eafy to difcover what part of Kalm's veafoning, in the above quotation, I 

 admit. 



this 



