336 CLASS REPTILIA. 



rattle-snake and strangle it in its folds. Daudin tells us that 

 it can be tamed, and that it only has recourse to flight to 

 escape from the pursuits of man. It causes great destruction 

 among rats and mice, and accordingly it is highly respected 

 by the people, who are pleased to see it come into their houses. 

 It also feeds on squirrels, opossums, frogs, lizards, and even 

 birds of prey. 



It is utterly impossible for us to follow any further the 

 innumerable species which have been attached to this genus. 

 We could cite little or nothing of any interest concerning 

 them, and moreover, such are the confusion and want of 

 authenticity in the species, that we might be delivering 

 either that which had no truth whatever, or we might be 

 recounting concerning one species that which properly be- 

 longed to another. The species of the figures inserted will 

 be found described in the table. 



Of AcROCHORDUs, Shaw enumerates three species, but our 

 author, as we have seen, allows but of one. Shaw also talks 

 of the fruits found in the stomach of the Acrochordus Ja- 

 vensis, a fact, as the Baron well remarks, totally improbable. 

 There is nothing concerning the habits of this animal that 

 can be of the least interest to our readers. 



We now come to the first division of the venomous serpents, 

 and by far the most formidable. 



The Crotalus is a genus of serpents celebrated from the 

 earliest period of the discovery of America by the danger 

 which accompanies their bite, and the peculiar appendages 

 to their tail, which have caused them to be named rattle- 

 snakes, which the name crotalus very well expresses, from 

 xporaXov, which signifies a bell, rattle, or cymbal. Such is 

 the terror which they have inspired, that were we to trust to 

 the relations of many travellers, we must conclude that 

 America would be almost uninhabitable in consequence of 

 their ravages. Towards the end of the last century, many 



