SO REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



they abound.* The pig is an excellent auxiliary in obtaining this 

 result. In the western and southern States of North America, when 

 a field or farm is infested by these poisonous reptiles, it is usual to 

 put a sow with her young brood there, and the snakes, it is said, will 

 soon be destroyed. It appears that owing to the fatty matter which 

 envelops the body of this animal it is safe from the venomous bite. 

 Besides, it likes the flesh of the snakes, and eagerly pursues them. 

 According to Dr. Franklin, when a pig sees a rattlesnake, it smacks 

 its jaws, and its hairs bristle up ; the snake coils itself up to strike 

 its enemy; the pig approaches fearlessly, and receives the blow in 

 the fold of fat which hangs upon the side of its jaw. Then it places 

 a foot on the tail of the snake, and with its teeth he begins to pull 

 his enemy to pieces, and eats it with evident enjoyment. t The pig 

 is not the only animal employed to destroy rattlesnakes. Dr. Rufz 

 de Lavison, who long resided in the French Antilles, and was 

 afterwards manager of the Jardin d'Acclimatation, of Paris, has 

 published a highly interesting work, in which he relates the very im- 

 portant services which certain birds, especially the Secretary-bird, or 

 Serpent-eater (imported from South Africa), render by destroying 

 rattlesnakes in the West Indies. We have said that the Crotalida 

 are some of the most dangerous of any Snakes ; let us mention some 

 facts which show the frightful power of their venom. A Crotalus, 

 about three feet in length, killed a dog in about fifteen minutes, a 

 second in two hours, and a third in about four hours. Four days 

 after it bit another dog, which only survived thirty seconds ; and 

 another, which only struggled four minutes. Three days afterwards 

 it bit a frog, which died at the end of two seconds ; and a chicken, 

 which perished at the end of eight minutes. 



An American, named Drake, arrived at Rouen with three live 

 rattlesnakes. In spite of the care which he had taken to preserve 

 them from cold, one of them died. He put the cage which con- 

 tained the other two near to a stove, and excited them with a small 

 stick, to assure himself that they were alive and in health. As one 



* It is currently believed in parts of the United States that, if a ring of 

 the bark of the white ash tree be placed around a camp, these reptiles 

 wil not cross it. 



f Dekay, in his "Natural History of New York," remarks that it is a 

 popular belief that hogs are particularly destructive to rattlesnakes ; but neither 

 their bristly hide nor their thick teguments afford them perfect immunity 

 from the stroke of this reptile. I was informed by a respectable farmer that 

 he lost three hogs in one season by the poison either of the Copperhead or 

 Rattlesnake. ED. 



