168 Dr Haiicock's Observations on 



'deprived of animation. Had the animal been alive at the time, 

 it might easily have made a prey of one of these birds at least. 



It appears to me that that property of serpents which has 

 obtained the name oi Jascinatimi, does not exclusively belong 

 to any certain species, but that it is in some measure common 

 to all the serpent race ; and that there are a few of the more 

 subtile and cunning ones, who know how to improve by their 

 natural endowments, and to turn those powers to advantage in 

 their predatory pursuits. 



I am decidedly of opinion, from the observations I have been 

 able to make, as well as from tlie testimony of others, that there 

 is in reality no such property as fascination in serpents. It is 

 not a faculty of charming or of fascinating, in the usual accep- 

 tation of the term, which enables certain serpents to take birds ; 

 but, on the contrary, their hideous form and gestures, which 

 strikes the timid animals with impressions of horror, stupifying 

 them with terror, and depriving them of their proper sensations, 

 which renders them unfit for any exertion. 



How, indeed, is it possible that a form so terrific and forbid- 

 ding as that of the crotalus, should be possessed of a power to 

 render itself agreeable or inviting. It is, on the contrary, na- 

 tural to suppose that it is the tcrr'if'ijivg, not the charming, 

 principle by which serpents of the most disgusting or hideous 

 forms arc most successful in taking birds ; and this we find to 

 be actually the case, for those serpents to which has been as- 

 cribed the power of fascinating, are among the most terrific of 

 the tribe. 



The torpedo benumbs its prey with an electrical shock ; but 

 the serpent disables the more timid birds by the mere presenta- 

 tion of its horrible front. The one hurtful or destructive agent 

 is communicated by the touch, or some conducting medium, as 

 water, and acts with energy upon the muscular fibre ; the other 

 finds its way by the organ of vision, and exerts its influence up- 

 on the sensorium commune or brain, and thence paralyzing the 

 whole nervous and muscular system. No wonder than these 

 small birds, so feebly constituted, and the most sensible perhaps 

 of all animals to impressions of fear, should fall insensibly into 

 the devouring jaws of their terrific adversary. 



Thus the fascinating power attributed to serpents, if properly 



