CROTALUS HORRIDUS. 



young birds. After the snake was killed, the old bird flew 

 away. Mr. Rittenhouse says that the cry and actions of this 

 bird had been precisely similar to those of a bird which is 

 said to be under the influence of a serpent. The maize-thief 

 builds its nest in low bushes, the bottoms of which are the 

 usual haunts of the black snake. The reptile found no diffi- 

 culty in gliding up to the nest, from which, most probably, in 

 the absence of the mother, it had taken the young ones ; or it 

 had seized the young ones after they had been forced from 

 the nest by the mother. In either case, the mother had come 

 to prevent them from being devoured." 



This tribe of animals love to reside in woods, and on lofty 

 hills, especially where the strata is rocky or chalky. Being 

 slow of motion, they also frequent the sides of rills, where 

 frogs, &c. resort. They are generally found during the sum- 

 mer in pairs, in winter collecting in multitudes and retiring 

 under ground beyond the reach of frost. The rattlesnake is 

 viviparous, producing its young (generally about twelve in 

 number) in the month of June, and it is said to practise the 

 same extraordinary mode of preserving them from danger 

 which is attributed to the viper in Europe, viz. of receiving 

 them into its mouth, and retaining them in its stomach till 

 the danger is past, when they issue forth again uninjured. 

 It is well known that in the Western States of North Amer- 

 ica, where rattlesnakes are plentiful, the hogs kill and eat 

 them, nor is their bite formidable to their swinish enemy, on 

 whom its venomous fangs seem to produce no effect. It is 

 owing to this well-known fact, that families resident in those 

 parts of the country conceive that hog's lard must be a kind 

 of antidote to their poison, and frequently use it successfully 

 as a remedy. 



The Striped Rattlesnake, Crotalus durissus, may be distin- 

 guished from the preceding by the different disposition of its 

 colors, being of a deep brown above, with pale yellow streaks 

 forming a continued series of large rhombs or lozenges down 

 the back, the stripes growing less distinct as they descend on 

 the sides. The neck is marked by a longitudinal streak on 

 each side, and the under parts of the body are of a dusky 

 yellowish brown, with numerous small dark spots and patch- 

 es. It is a native of the same parts of America as the one 

 already described, resembling it also in size and general pro- 

 portions, as well as in the fatal effects of its bite. 



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