RATTLE SNAKES. ISt 



Fancy has assigned to the lordly rattle snake 

 an attendant, or minister, like the jackall of the 

 king of the quadrupeds. This is a venomous vi- 

 per, with a flat head, and a body coloured like 

 the rattle snake. It has no crepitaculum, and is 

 called the ratde snake's pilot. 



I have been told, but I have had no opportunity 

 of ascertaining the fact, that the rattle snake dif- 

 fers from all others, for that when skinned, the 

 whole body becomes open to the back bone, and 

 and that no intestines are visible except the heart. 



It appears that the rattle snake is not singular 

 in the selection of his winter quarters. Thunberg 

 speaks of a mountain, or rather a large single 

 rock, in the Cape Colony, in Africa, called Slan- 

 genkof, (serpent's head) on one side of it is a large 

 and deep crevice, which makes this rock remarka- 

 ble, for every autumn the serpents go there and 

 coil together, and come out in summmer. The 

 poison of the serpent has most power over those 

 animals whose blood is the warmest, and the 

 action of whose heart is the most lively; while 

 on the contrary it is said not to be a poison to 

 the serpent itself, nor to its fellows, nor in gene- 

 ral to cold-blooded animals. I have beard this 

 remark contradicted in relation to the bife of the 

 X rattle snake, although I believe it to be true of 



the viper tribe in general. A person saw two 

 I 2 



