178 



CROTALUS. 



angular-headed serpents, which have not, but are 

 fully as formidable as the others. With the viper 

 family, which consists of more genera than this one, 

 all poisonous, but of smaller size generally than the 

 Crotali, and diffused over a greater variety of 

 countries, these serpents make up the whole of the 

 division. 



It will be proper, therefore, to preface our brief 

 notice of some of the more remarkable species of 

 thes formidable reptiles by a very brief sketch of 

 the peculiarities which distinguish them from all the 

 other serpents. 



Their upper maxillary bones are very small, without 

 any teeth, but having upon a long peduncle on each 

 side, which answers to the external pterygoid process 

 of the sphenoid bone, a very sharp tooth, which is 

 perforated longitudinally by a canal, through which 

 the deadly virus of the animal is injected into the 

 wound made by the tooth. These two teeth are the 

 poison-fangs of the animal ; they are very sharp at 

 the points, rather slender in proportion to their 

 length, and awl-shaped, or adapted for inflicting 

 punctured wounds only, and not for tearing or lacerat- 

 ing, so that the wounds which they inflict are not cal- 

 culated to do much mechanical injury to their victims. 

 Indeed, this addition would be quite superfluous, as 

 the poison is of itself sufficient to kill almost any 

 native animal of the places where these serpents are 

 found ; and it is a law of nature never to waste any 

 power in the creatures which she produces, whatever 

 may be the functions which they are called upon to 

 perform. When the reptile is in a state of repose, 

 these two deadly weapons are folded down into 

 grooves in the gums ; but when it is excited, they 

 are erected, and their points so borne, that they are 

 the first part of the reptile which strikes its prey. It 

 is not the tooth which moves upon its peduncle ; it 

 is the maxillary bone which moves, and brings the 

 fang into a proper position for wounding, at the same 

 time that it has firmness enough for inflicting the 

 wound. The virus is secreted by a gland of con- 

 siderable size, situated on each side of the head, 

 immediately under the eye ; and the same muscular 

 action which forces the tooth into the body of the 

 prey compresses the reservoir of venom, and so 

 forces it through the canal of the fang into the 

 wound. 



All venomous serpents are ovoviviparous, that is, the 

 eggs are hatched internally, and the young brought 

 forth alive ; so that, whenever the eggs of a snake 

 are met with in the ground, it may always be known 

 that the snake is a harmless one. It is on this 

 account that they have been called " vipers," which is 

 a contraction of vimpara. 



As the deadly virus with which these reptiles are 

 armed, dreaded as it is, and fatal as it has proved in 

 many cases, is nevertheless given to them for their 

 own good, and not for the injury of other animals, 

 excepting in so far as these serve as food to the 

 reptiles, we might naturally suppose that both the 

 crotali and the vipers must feed upon large game, 

 that is to say, upon game which they would not be 

 able to manage without these formidable weapons. 

 Accordingly, we find that the mouths and gullets of 

 all of them are capable of great extension. 



The heads of these serpents are large backwards, 

 BO that there may be room for the apparatus which 

 works their deadly fangs, and admit of the dilatation 

 of their great gape. Their eyes are also fiery, and 



they are altogether irascible in their aspect, aod 

 seem to partake all over of some of the deadly virus 

 with which they are armed, and by the help 01 which 

 they procure their food. 



But we must not blame them for all this. Their 

 peculiar structure, and the places in which they seek 

 their food, do not enable them to strike it down like 

 the birds of prey, nor to course it, or sprint,-- on it, like 

 the predatory mammalia. We have also an example of 

 the same sort of conduct in man, and we have it most 

 remarkable in the very parts of the world where 

 such creatures are most abundant. The poison with 

 which the natives of the interior of Guiana, of 

 southern Africa, of some of the Asiatic isles, and 

 other places, prepare their darts and arrows, is 

 almost literally man playing the crotalu?, in that 

 feebleness of his proper powers, or rather of the proper 

 cultivation of them, which makes the savage stand to 

 the civilised man in nearly the relation in which the 

 serpent stands to the lion and the eagle. It must be 

 admitted that civilised man, with his powder and 

 shot, is not much better than the crotalus with its 

 poison ; and then there is this weight in the scale 

 against him, that he discharges his stroke against his 

 own species, and when the action is not to produce 

 him a meal, which the reptile never does. 



These poisonous serpents are not supplied with 

 either the activity or the strength of the species 

 which are not poisonous. Their movements -are 

 slow, and. their dispositions tranquil, and they never 

 appear to use their weapons unless when compelled 

 thereto either by necessity or by fear. They are all 

 inhabitants of the American continent ; and some of 

 them, though the winter is much colder than in the 

 the same parallel of Europe or Asia, are found much 

 farther to the north than any serpent of nearly the 

 same deadly venom is met with in the eastern 

 continent. Those which are found tar to the north 

 (and, though they are not abundant, they arc not 

 altogether unknown in Canada) are abroad and 

 dangerous only for part of the year, and remain in 

 their holes in a torpid state while the severity of 

 winter lasts ; but in the tropical parts of the country 

 they are never torpid, though they remain in hiding 

 places, or are, at any rate, inactive during the rains. 



The very high temperature of the summer month?, 

 even in those places of North America which are cold 

 in the winter, and also the abundance of food, and of 

 undisturbed caves for their residence, are no doubt 

 the reasons why they are found in such northerly 

 localities in that part of the world. 



In the true crotali which have the rattle, or 

 sounding apparatus, on the tail, there are considerable 

 varieties, so that no specific character can be founded 

 on the number of pieces of which this instrument 

 consists. The pieces or bells consist of truncated 

 pyramids and hollow collars, both of the nature of 

 scales ; and when the animal puts its tail in motion, 

 these rattle against each other. As these do not 

 contain any living part of the animal, but are mere 

 appendages to the tail, the last ones are apt to 

 drop off, just as is the case with the spine or claw 

 which is sometimes found adhering to the skin of the 

 lion's tail in the centre of the terminal brush. It 

 does not appear that this rattle is of any use in the 

 economy of the animal, or, which comes very much 

 to the same thing, the use of it is not known. It 

 cannot, as has sometimes been alleged, be of much 

 use in warning other animals of the appearance or 



