ASCRIBED TO THE llATTLE-SNAKE, Sic. jo^ 



■which it was pecking with its beak. At this very time, 

 the ferpent was in the a£l of fwallowing a young bird, 

 and from the enlarged iize of the reptile's belly it was 

 evident, that it had already fwallowed two or three other 

 young birds. After the fnake was killed, the old bird 

 flew away. 



Mr. Rittenhoufe fays that the cry and adlions of this 

 bird had been precifely fimilar to thofe of a bird vv'hich 

 is faid to be under the fafcinating influence of a ferpent ; 

 and 1 doubt not that this very inftance would, by many 

 credulous perfons, have been adduced as a proof of the 

 exlftence of fuch a faculty. But what can be more evi- 

 dent than the general explanation of this cafe ? The maize- 

 thief builds its nefi in low bufhes, the bottoms of which 

 are the ufual haunts of the black-fnake. The reptile 

 found no difficulty in gliding up to the neft, from which, 

 moft probably in the abfence of the mother, it had taken 

 tlie young ones. Or it had feized the young ones, after 

 they had been forced from the neft, by the mother. In 

 either cafe, the mother had come to prevent them from 

 being devoured. 



We are well acquainted with the common food of the 

 rattle-fnake. It is the great-frog* of our rivers, creeks, 

 and other waters. The fnake lies infidioufly in wait for 

 his prey, at the water-edge. He employs no machinery 

 of enchantment. He trufts to his cunning and his 

 flrength. 



A very ingenious -f- friend of mine, who has devoted 

 confiderable attention to the natural hiftory of the rattle- 

 fnake, and who has difledted many of them, afliires me, 

 that he never faw but one inftance in which a bird was 

 found in the ftomach of this reptile, and_ this bird was 



* Rana ocellata of Linnaeus. 

 t Timothy Matlack, Efquire. 



the 



