LECTURE VII. 37 



shape, growing over each other, and so consti- 

 tuted as to give a strong rattling sound when the 

 animal shakes them, which it never fails to do 

 when irritated or disturbed, and may thus be said 

 to warn other animals of their danger in making 

 too near an approach. The common Rattle-Snake 

 (for there are several different species) is naturally 

 a slow-moving animal, and therefore all the tales 

 that are told of its darting with the rapidity of 

 lightning about its native woods and plains, must 

 be considered as mere imaginary description. The 

 Count cle Cepede in his history of the Rattle- 

 Snake commences with a Buffonian flourish of this 

 kind, and assures us that " the traveller wandering 

 in the midst of the burning solitudes of Africa, 

 and fainting under the midday heat, feels not a 

 more thrilling horror on hearing at a distance the 

 tremendous voice of the Tyger roaring for his prey, 

 than he who passing through the moist forests of 

 the new world experiences, when in the midst of 

 beauty and fragrance he is on a sudden surprized 

 by the sound of the Rattle-Snake, ready to dart 

 upon him in order to destroy him." The Rattle- 

 Snake on the contrary, according to the united 

 testimony of all real observers, never attacks or 



