MEMOIR ON AMPHIBIA. 367 



Mr. Peale, his children, and myfelf, have often exa- 

 mined the reptile. We never perceived it to fend out the 

 flighteft fiiftbcating odour. It is in vain to objedl that the 

 living birds thus given it were not of the kind fitted for 

 its nourifliment ; for it has eaten the fame birds, when 

 prefented to it dead, and it is not ulelefs to remark that it 

 never refufed one of them. 



The fitme obfervation is not true of frogs, which, in 

 the opinion of fome perfons, pafs as the food of the boi- 

 quira ; Mr. Peale often prefented to it living and dead 

 ones. It never touched them. It never in this relpedt 

 imitated the black ferpent (coluber conftridlus. Linn.) 

 This reptile, which Mr. Peale has likewife preierved alive, 

 has eaten the flies, infedls, and frogs (the rana arborea, 

 Linn, among others) which were prefented to it. 



Thefe experiments prove : ift, That the boiquira, at 

 leaft when it is in a ftate of captivity, has not the power 

 of enchanting, affrighting, or fuffocating f^zVi/j-. 2d, That 

 it does not nourifli itfelf with /rugs. 



The miftake, with refpedl to tjie nature of the food of 

 this reptile, into which Linnaeus and other naturalifts after 

 him have fallen, has been owing without doubt to there 

 being two fpecies of rattlefnakes ; which he has confound- 

 ed together. 



There are within the territory of the United States two 

 known fpecies of crotalus. The crotalus miliaris and the 

 crotalus horridus of Linnseus. There is however another, 

 well diffinguilhed by the inhabitants of the fouth. The 

 miliaris is called the ground rattlefnake, and is fo named 

 becaui'e it keeps itfelf frequently under ground. When 

 it comes to the furface it is moff plealed in the grafs, and 

 is the more dangerous as it is dif^cult to be perceived. 

 The fecond is known under the name of the pine-bari'en 

 rattlefnake ;' and fo named, becaufe in the fummer, that is, 

 in the fcafon that it quits its retreat and fceks its food, this 



reptile 



