322 Al^IERICAN SrsAKES. 



would have no difficulty in performing such a feat, for 

 its jaws are most capacious. They are held together 

 only by strong muscles, so that the snake, if so in- 

 clined, can separate them from each other. This 

 arrangement is very convenient, when we recollect 

 that serpents never tear or gnaw their food, but, as 

 a general rule, swallow it whole. The larger kinds, 

 indeed, crush their prey ; but even that operation does 

 not render it much easier to swallow, and it often 

 happens that the mouthful is much larger than the 

 jaws between which it is to pass. 



But the serpent can not only unhinge his jaws, he 

 can protrude or retract one independently of the other, 

 so that he can push forward one set of teeth and hook 

 them in the prey, and bring up the others until the 

 dainty morsel is wholly engulfed. 



Rattlesnakes are said to possess the power of fascina- 

 tion, and to employ that power in the capture of their 

 food. Disputes have long been rife on that point, 

 much having been both said and written in support as 

 well as in condemnation of the theory. The old 

 French traveller, Le Vaillant, relates that he saw a 

 bird, on which a snake had fixed its eyes, trembling 

 violently, and that when the reptile was killed the 

 bird was found dead, from fright, as was supposed, as 

 no wound could be found upon it. In the year 1723, 

 Mr. Paul Dudley gave an account of the rattlesnake, 

 in which is the following passage : — 



