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C R O T O N. 



there is perhaps no animal but which may be turned 

 from its momentary instinctive impulse, and brought 

 to simple attention by one combination of sounds or 

 another ; and it will readily be understood that if 

 once this is done, the former impulse of the animal is 

 gone for ever, and cannot return without a return of 

 those circumstances which, according to the general 

 .nature of the animal, give rise to that particular 

 impulse. 



This is a most important point in animal physio- 

 logy, and one which ought never to be lost sight of ; 

 and it explains many circumstances connected with 

 the conduct and apparent characters of animals which 

 otherwise would be perfectly anomalous. Upon this 

 principle very many of those marvellous stones which 

 are told of animals leaving their natural instincts, and 

 sparing that which it is constitutional for them to 

 devour, which have often been attempted to be 

 explained by something approaching to human saga- 

 city, to grateful memory, or to both in the animals, 

 can be much better explained as arising from the fact 

 of the animal having no speculative sagacity and no 

 suggestive memory at all, but as being mere creatures 

 of the moment, incapable of drawing inferences from 

 the past, and of forming plans for the future. The 

 fascination of their prey by serpents, and the charming 

 of serpents themselves by human art,of both of which, 

 as we have said, there is no reason to doubt, at least 

 to a very considerable extent, evidently arise from 

 the withdrawal of the animal's senses from its object; 

 and keeping them bewildered ; and as it requires a 

 much greater effort to work one of those poisonous 

 serpents up to the proper pitch of attacking, than it 

 does most other animals, it is easy to see that if it is 

 once withdrawn from ils purpose, it cannot so easily 

 return to it, but must require the same time, and the 

 same train of excitement as before. Perhaps we may 

 have occasion to enlarge a little upon this very curious 

 subject in an article FASCINATION. 



From the difficulty, and also the danger of observ- 

 ing these creatures in their native haunts, the genera 

 and species are in a very unsettled state, and it would 

 be foreign to our purpose to attempt an adjustment 

 of them, even though we were in possession of the 

 means ; we shall therefore merely mention one or two 

 of the leading ones, remarking that, if the rattle is to 

 be considered as a generic distinction, some other 

 name should be invented for the whole family or' the 

 poisonous serpents of America, which are, generally 

 speaking, of much larger size than those of the east, 

 and also more deadly in their virus. In the meantime 

 we may consider them al! as crotalL 



BUSH MASTER. This species is perhaps the most for- 



Bush- master, 

 midable In point of size and also in deadliness of bite. 



It is found in the humid thickets of the woods nt 

 Guiana, and does little harm when left at peace ; but 

 it is a very formidable creature when attacked. The 

 preceding figure of it in the act of starting from its 

 coil, will give some general idea of the form and 

 bearing of all the family. This one attains the length 

 of live or six feet ; and in those large specimens the 

 poison fangs are nearly an inch and an half in length, 

 very sharp, and thus capable of inflicting a mortal 

 wound in a very large animal, from the depth at which 

 they can discharge the virus. 



COMMON RATTLE SNAKE (Crotahts horridux). This 

 is the more northerly species. It was formerly found 

 six or seven feet long ; but it has been so much 

 hunted since the colonisation of North America, that 

 it is not now met witli of so large size. It is not 

 dangerous to man or domestic animals, unless attacked, 

 or trod upon accidentally ; and the smell of it is so 

 offensive to most animals, as to make them avoid the 

 bushes in which it is lying hid : pigs are the only 

 animals which venture to invade their retreats ; for 

 the olfactory nerves of the pig are not only proof 

 against all sorts of smells, but the peculiar nature of 

 his skin and the lard under it is such, that the fangs 

 even of a rattle snake are innocuous to the animal 

 who gobbles up the serpent as a bonne Louche wherever 

 he can find it. 



The remaining species, with the exception of the 

 small spotted crotalus, which is found in the arid 

 plains to the westward of the Mississippi, and so 

 southward into Mexico, and the yellow serpent of the 

 West India Islands, are not so clearly made out as to 

 warrant our giving a popular account of them under 

 their specific names, as these have been framed from 

 museum specimens, with very little knowledge of 

 what the animals are in wild nature, and sometimes 

 in ignorance of the part of the world of which they 

 are natives. Indeed it has sometimes happened that 

 a serpent has been given to very nearly the antipodes 

 of his native locality ; thus, as we had occasion to 

 mention in the article COLUBER, an American serpent 

 has been described in the systems as the Esculapian 

 serpent of the ancient Greeks ; and by way of imtking 

 matters worse, even some of the crotali have been 

 represented as coming from Ceylon. 



There is much to be learned before the history of 

 reptiles, even in Britain, shall be worthy the name of 

 a science, or rather a scrap of a science, tor the 

 reptiles in our islands are so few ; and therefore when 

 we consider the vast extent of the localities of tropical 

 serpents, the obscurity of their manners, and the 

 apprehensions that most people have of them, we 

 almost despair of seeing for many centuries anything 

 like even a tolerable system of this singular branch of 

 living nature, a branch which, from its intimate 

 connection with the most fertile spots, and the greatest 

 energy both of animal and of vegetable life, would 

 doubtless, if rightly understood, fmnish one of tiie 

 best keys to those general operations of nature, which 

 stamp their most prominent characters upon the 

 different regions of the world. For one cr two 

 general observations we must refer the reader to the 

 articles OPHIDIA and REPTILE. 



CROTON (Linnaeus). A tropical genus of shrubs 

 so called, because the seeds resemble ticks. Linnsean 

 class and order AfoitfeciaMonadel/rfiia&fid natural order 

 Euphorbiaceee. Generic character : male flowers, 

 calyx five-parted ; petals five, with glands between 

 each ; stamens numerous ; filaments free and awl- 



