the Rattlefnale, and other American Serpents. 201 



a full view of both the fnake and the fqurirel. Sometimes I 

 thought the fquinel going down for the lafl: time, and to 

 enter the jaws of the hiake; but it would again return up the 

 bufh vvith the fame livehnefs it had run down. Finding, 

 finally, no material alteration in the fquirrel or its motions, 

 and my patience being exhaufted, I determined on killin<r 

 the fnake", and examining into the cafe of the fquirrel, viz. 

 what ftrength, &c. it yet retained after being charmed for fo 

 Jong a time ; for, by tnis time, the fuppofed charm had Lifted 

 near three hours. I ftruck at the fnake with a lono- pole, 

 but milled it; upon which it ran down the bank where I 

 had been fifliing. Remaining by the bufli on which the 

 fquirrel was, I hailed a man on the oppofite fide of the river, 

 defiring him to crofs in a canoe and kill the fnake under the 

 bauk. To which he immediately complied; but likewife 

 miffing his ftroke, on account of the bufhes, "the fnake took 

 up the bank again, where I killed it. We now both joined 

 to iTiake the fquirrel down; but it had both fenfe and ftrength 

 enough to climb to the very top, I fuppofe near twenty feet 

 high. However, we brought it down to the ground ; and 

 though it had fallen about two yards from the bufti, it well 

 knew its hf»le in which it dwelt, and this was at the root of 

 the bufti, and exa6lly at the fpot where the fnake had lain. 

 Here the myftery was cleared up to us at once. We con- 

 je6lurcd that the fnake was either watching for the fquirrel 

 to come down to enter its hole, or for its companion or 

 young, which were probably in the hole, to come out; all 

 of which were fufticient to caufe anxiety in the fquirrel on 

 the bufli. The dexterity, however, of the fcjuirrel \n making 

 its way into the hole, and at the very place where we ftood, 

 Ihowed plainly that it retained its full ftrength and fagacity, 

 and had by no means fuflfered from the charm of the fnake*." 

 " A fimilar circumftance, to which I was alfo an cye- 

 witnefs, happened," fays Mr. Heckewelder, " in the year 

 1771, near Wyalufing, on Sufquchanna, where the cries of 

 the chewinkf drew my attention to the fpot. The rattle- 

 fnako was juft entering a heap ofbrufh, in vt'hich the old 

 ones had their neft with young. I fuppofed that one or the 

 other of the old ones, with the young, would have become 

 its prey, had I not approached and relieved them by killing 

 ^he fnake :}:." 



* Letter to me, dated Bethlehem, Auguft 5th, .1796. Mr. Hecke- 

 welder has fince informed me, that the (hake, dui iiig the whole of the 

 t^e he attended to it, never (hook its rattle. 



t The Fringilla erythrophthalma of Linnaut. 



% Letter to mc, dated Augult 5th, 1796. 



The 



