THE BANDED RATTLE-SNAKE. 77 



from the root to about half its length. This is fre- 

 quently darted out and retracted with great agility. 

 There is, besides the fangs with which the Rattle- 

 snakes kill their prey, another kind of teeth, much 

 smaller, and situated in both jaws, which serve for 

 catching and retaining it. There are no grinders: 

 for they do not chew their food, but always swallow 

 it whole. 



It is not very uncommon for this creature to come 

 into houses ; but the moment any of the domestic 

 animals see or hear it they take alarm, and unite in 

 giving notice of its presence. Hogs, dogs, and 

 poultry, all exhibit the utmost consternation and 

 terror, erecting their bristles and feathers, and ex- 

 pressing by their different notes of alarm that a dan- 

 gerous enemy is near. Mr. Catesby says that, in a 

 gentleman's house of Carolina, as the servant was 

 making the bed, on the ground floor, that he had 

 himself left but a few minutes before, he disco- 

 vered a Rattle-snake lying coiled between the sheets 

 in the middle of the bed *. 



When the Rattle-snake has been irritated, or the 

 weather is exceedingly hot, its poison, on being in- 

 serted into a wound, often proves fatal in a very short 

 time. In the Philosophical Transactions we have an 

 account of several experiments that were made by 

 Captain Hall, in South Carolina. A snake was tied 

 down to a grass-plot, and made to bite a healthv 

 cur-dog : immediately afterwards the poor animal's 



* Catesby, ii. 41. 



