526 THE RATTLESNAKE. 



hands alone. They hissed and rattled when he meddled with 

 them, but did not offer to bite him. Possibly this might 

 have occurred during the time when they were sluggish, and 

 their venom less deadly. 



The little peccary is a great enemy of the rattlesnake, as it 

 is of all other serpents, and ordinary hogs destroy it easily 

 without suffering from its bite ; so that as man makes pro- 

 gress through the country and introduces these animals, rattle- 

 snakes speedily disappear. 



Although the fascinating powers of the rattlesnake have 

 been doubted, it seems probable that small birds and animals 

 are frequently attracted when they catch sight of it coiled up 

 on the ground below the branches on which they are posted 

 and, if not fascinated, fall through terror into its open jaws ; 

 or it may be that, influenced by the same overpowering im- 

 pulse which induces human beings to rush into danger, the 

 animal or bird, on beholding its deadly enemy, approaches it 

 against its own will, and is drawn nearer and nearer, till it 

 either falls into the deadly fangs, or comes near enough to be 

 entrapped. 



Bates was one day in a forest with a little dog, which ran 

 into a thicket and made a dead-set on a large snake whose 

 head was raised above the herbage. The serpent reared its 

 tail slightly in a horizontal position, and shook its terrible 

 rattle. It was some minutes before he could get the dog 

 away. This shows how slow the reptile is to make the fatal 

 spring. 



On another occasion, he heard above his head, as it seemed, 

 a pattering noise, when the wind, which had been blowing, 

 lulling for a few moments, he discovered that it proceeded 

 from the ground, and, turning his head, was startled by a 



