254 On tbe fafcinating Power 
‘a 
cumftance :+The young Indians place a reed crofs-wife in* 
their mouth, and by a tremulous motion of the lips imitate’ 
. the ery of young birds, by which imeans they entice the old 
ones, fo that they can then eafily fhoot them. In this 
manner the butcher bird (danius excubitor), concealed in 
the thickeft buthes, imitates the cries of young birds, and 
thus often catches the old ones, who approach deceived by 
the fimilarity of the found.’* 
As far as I know, Dr. Mead, about fifty years ago, when’ 
controverting the idea that providence had furnifhed the 
raitle-{nake with its rattle to give warning to travellers, was’ 
the firft who afferted that it ferves the animal to terrify’ 
fguirrels and fmall birds, which are then fo flupefied by the 
fight of an enemy fo terrible to them, that they at length’ 
drop down and become its prey, and that this is what the’ 
Indians call fafcination. He himfelf obferved, that when a 
hawk was perched on a tree in a garden, the fmall birds in 
the neighbourhood were fo ftupeficd that they fluttered 
about. within a imail circle, but were not in.a condition to 
efcape from the claws: of the ravenous animal. This ac- 
cords perfectly with what Dr. Barton fays himfelf, in 
general, that nature has taught different animals what kind 
of animals their enemies are, and that if fmall animals are 
attracted by the rattle-fnake it may be owing to fear. In 
regard to the pretended effe& of the noife occafioned by the 
rattle, nothing can agree better than what Dr. Barton fays 
himfelf in regard to the ftratagem of the young Indians with 
a reed in their mouth. 
T fhall here obferve, that I obtained my information from 
Major Gardner, who, with his family, refided many years 
in Eaft Florida. He is a very intelligent naturalift, an ac- 
curate obferver, aud certainly would be very far from im-~ 
pofing upon me. 
Dr. Barton, after endeavouring by the above objections 
to refute the before-mentioned three niethods of accouriting 
for the fafcinating power of the rattle-fnake, gives himfelf a 
fourth 
