38 LECTURE VII. 



moves towards a person who approaches him, but 

 always endeavours to escape, and never bites un- 

 less accidentally trodden on or purposely irritated. 

 The colour of the Rattle-Snake is brown with yel- 

 low variegations ; in one species these are in the 

 form of bars, and in another in the form of Lo- 

 zenge-shaped streaks : it grows to the length of 

 some feet. Its bite is certainly one of the most 

 dangerous of the whole Serpent tribe; but its 

 effect, like that of every other poisonous Serpent, 

 must vary extremely according to the state of 

 health of the person receiving the wound, as well 

 as of the part on which the wound has been in- 

 flicted : if it happens on a large vein, it very 

 soon proves fatal : if not, it is often curable. We 

 have well attested accounts of a dog's having been 

 killed in less than two minutes by the bite of a 

 Rattle-Snake*. 



The next Linnasan genus of Snakes is called 

 Boa, and is distinguished by having broad scaly 

 transverse plates both beneath the body and tail, 



* The fascination of the R. Snake is now pretty generally 

 referred either to the mere effects of fear, or to the supposed fas- 

 cinated animals having been first in reality bitten and disabled 

 from making their escape. 



