ASCRIBED TO THE RATTLE-SNAKE, Bcc. iii 



learn, the birds which moft commonly attack and deftroy 

 this reptile, are the fvvallow -tailed hawk*, and the larger 

 kinds of owls. The owl often feeds her young with this 

 fnake, whofe bones are frequently found, in her neft, at 

 confiderable heights from the ground. Even a hen has 

 been known to leave, for a minute, her affrighted chick- 

 ens, and attack, with her beak, a rattle-fnake, the great- 

 er part of whofe body flie afterwards devoured -f-. 



The black-fnake is a ferpent of much more adivity 

 than the rattle-fnake. The latter, as I have already 

 faid J, feldom, if ever, climbs up trees. But the for- 

 mer will fometimes afcend the lottiell: trees, in purfuit 

 of the obje(3: of his appetite. The rattle-fnake, it has 

 been juft obferved, fubiifts principally upon the large 

 frog, which freqvients the waters of our country. He 

 has, therefore, but little occafion for adivity. But the 

 black-fnake, feeding more upon birds, ftands more in 

 need of adivity. He frequently glides up the trees of the 

 foreft, &c. and, commonly in the abfence of the mother, 

 devours either her eggs or her young ones. The difficulty 

 of obtaining his prey upon the tree is fometimes very con- 

 fiderable, as will appear from a fa£t which will be related 

 immediately. Now, if this ferpent is gifted with the 

 faculty of fafcinating, why is he not content to continue 

 at the bottom of the tree, and bring down his objed: ? 

 And if he can employ this machinery of fafcination at 

 his pleafure, how comes it, that he fo feldom fucceeds in 

 capturing old birds ? For it is a fad that when birds are 



* Falco furcatus. 



f It is commonly believed, that the rattle-fnake is a very liardy animal : 

 but this is not the cafe. A very fmall ftroke on any part of its body dif- 

 ables it from running at all ; and the flighteft Itroke upon the top of the 

 head is followed by iiirtant death. The fkuU-bone is remarkably thin and 

 brittle ; fo much fo indeed, that it is thought that a ftroke from the wing 

 of a thrufh or robin would be fufRcient to break it. 



X Seepage 103. 



P 2 found 



