VENOMOUS SERPENTS. Cl 



lapidity, an I thus produces a noise sufficiently loud to be heard 

 at a distance of several fathoms. 



64. Rattle Snakes attain a length of five or six feet, and even 

 more : they inhabit America, and are celebrated for the violence 

 of their poison. In general, they do not bite except when pro- 

 voked, and they rarely attack animals too large for them to 

 swallow. Notwithstanding that their food chiefly consists of birds, 

 squirrels, &c., they do not climb upon trees. It was believed 

 for a long time that they possessed the power of stupifying their 

 victims by their breath, or even charming them by their gaze, 

 and thus forcing them to enter their mouth; but it is only the 

 extreme terror they inspire in small animals, which confounds 

 them so much as to prevent their flight, causing them to perform 

 irregular movements, and even to fall into the jaws of their 

 enemy. These serpents ordinarily keep themselves coiled 

 spirally, near a watering-place, frequented by small mammals. 

 There they tranquilly wait, until some victim presents itself, and, 

 when within reach, they spring upon it with the rapidity of 

 lightning. In parts of North America, where the winter is 

 rigorous, they are benumbed during winter, and, we are assured, 

 that during the cold seeson, their bite is not dangerous. In 

 Cayenne, and other warm countries, they are never benumbed. 

 Negroes eat their flesh. 



65. Many species of Rattle Snake are known : mos>t of them 

 have the head covered with scales like those on the back ; that 

 which is most common in the United States, is brown, with 

 irregular, transverse, blackish bands; that of Guiana has lozenge 

 shaped spots, bordered with black. Both are about six feet in 

 length. 



66. The TRIGONOCEPHALI are distinguished from the preceding 

 by the absence of the rattle; but like them they have the fossette 

 or pit, behind the nostrils. Some of them have simple, sub- 

 caudal plates, like the Boas and Rattle Snakes ; others have the 

 tail furnished beneath with double plates like the Colubers, and 

 most Vipers. They equal the Rattle Snakes in the violence of 

 their poison, and most of them inhabit the western continent. 

 The most celebrated species is the Yellow Trigonocephalits, also 

 called the Yellow Snake of the West Indies, and Lance-headed 

 Viper, 7\iyoitocephali<s lanceolatus. This reptile is very com- 

 mon in Martinique and the neighbouring Islands. It lives among 



64. What arc the habits of the Rattlesnake ? Where are Rattle Snakes 

 usually met with? 



65. Is there more than one spcciea of the Rattle Snake? 



66. How are the Trigonocephali distinguished from Rattle Snakes? What 

 the Lance-headed Viper ? Where is it found ? What are its habits ? 



