BANDED RATTLE-SNAKE. 331 



outmost and largest fangs were fixed to that bone 

 which (if any) may be thought to be the ear- 

 bone : the other fangs, or smaller ones, seemed 

 not fixed to any bone, but rather to muscles and 

 tendons. The fangs were not to be perceived on 

 first opening the mouth, lying couched under a 

 strong membrane or sheath ; but so as to make a 

 large rising there on the outside of the smaller 

 teeth of the maxilla; but at pleasure, when alive, 

 the animal can raise them to do execution with, 

 as a cat or lion does its claws. These fangs were 

 hooked and bent, like the tusks of the Baby- 

 roussa, but some of the smaller ones were bent at 

 right angles : on each side we meet with about 

 six or seven of these. In all these teeth was a 1 

 pretty large foramen or hole towards the root of 

 it, and towards the point was a plainly visible 

 large slit, sloping like the cut of a pen ; the part 

 from the slit being perfectly hollow ; and on press- 

 ing gently with the finger on the side of the gum, 

 the poison, which was of a yellowish colour, was 

 readily perceived to issue from the hollow of the 

 tooth through the slit. 



The vertebrae, according to the figure of the 

 body, were smallest towards both extremes, and 

 largest in the middle. From the neck to the vent 

 there were as many vertebra? as scales on the belly, 

 viz. 168; but from the vent to the setting on of 

 the rattle were twenty-nine more in number than 

 the scales. 



The rattle is well described by Dr. Grew, who 



