316 SNAKES 



attack such animals as come too near their lair. Their bite is 

 said to be able to kill a horse or an ox in ten or twelve minutes ; 

 but, fortunately, they are afraid of man, and will not venture to 

 attack him unless provoked. When roused to anger they are, 

 however, very formidable, as their fangs penetrate through 

 the strongest boot. One of the most remarkable features of 

 their organisation is a kind of rattle terminating the tail, and 

 consisting of a number of pieces inserted into each other, all 

 alike in shape and size, hollow, and of a thin, elastic, brittle 

 substance, like that of which the scales are externally formed. 

 When provoked, the strong and rapid vibratory motions im- 

 parted to the rattle produce a sound which 

 has been compared to that of knife-grind- 

 ing, but is never loud enough to be 

 heard at any distance, and becomes almost 

 inaudible in rainy weather. 



Naturalists distinguish at least a dozen 

 different species of rattlesnakes, the com- 

 monest of which are the Boaquira ((7ro- 

 talus horridus), which frequents the 

 warmest regions of South America, and the 

 Durissus (C. durissus), which has chosen 

 the United States for its principal home. 

 The chief enemy of this serpent is the 

 hog, whom it dreads so much that on 

 seeing one it immediately loses all its courage, and instantly 

 takes to flight. But the hog, who smells it from afar, draws 

 nearer and nearer, his bristles erected with excitement, seizes it 

 by the neck, and devours it with great complacency, though 

 without touching the head. As the hog is the invariable com- 

 panion of the settler in the backwoods, the rattlesnake every- 

 where disappears before the advance of man, and it is to be hoped 

 that a century or two hence it will be ranked among the extinct 

 animals. The American Indians often regale on the rattlesnake. 

 When they find it asleep, they put a- small forked stick over its 

 neck, which they keep immovably fixed to the ground, giving 

 the snake a piece of leather to bite, and this they pull back 

 several times with great force, until they perceive that the 

 poison-fangs are torn out. They then cut off the head, skin 



