340 CLASS REPTILIA. 



and as soon as it is in their reach they dart upon it with the 

 rapidity of an arrow. Nevertheless, it has happened more 

 than once to travellers to pass very near a crotalus, and even 

 to touch it with the foot without being bitten. The animal, 

 on such occasions, immediately rolls itself up in a spiral, and 

 waits for new provocations, before it darts out. If one re- 

 moves from it, it elongates itself gently, and creeps in a right 

 line, keeping its rattles raised up, and shaking them from 

 time to time. If it is provoked again, it stops, and reassumes 

 its spiral figure ; it moves its bells with rapidity ; its head 

 and neck become flattened ; its cheeks swell ; its lips con- 

 tract ; its jaws, widely separated, allow the formidable fangs 

 to appear ; it darts out repeatedly its long and forked tongue ; 

 its body swells and sinks successively through rage ; it 

 threats, but it never springs forward, unless it is certain of 

 reaching its enemy. 



An animal surprised by a rattle-snake very seldom attempts 

 to escape ; it becomes petrified with terror at the aspect of 

 the reptile, and even appears to rush upon the fate which 

 awaits it. 



These serpents are so dangerous that the slightest prick 

 made by their venomous fangs, will kill almost the largest 

 animals. Laurenti says, that when one has been bitten by 

 a crotalus, the entire body is swelled, the tongue becomes 

 prodigiously inflamed, the mouth is burning, an inextin- 

 guishable thirst takes place, a spitting of blood, the edges 

 of the wound become gangrened ; and at the end of five 

 or six minutes, the victim dies in frightful agony. In the 

 Philosophical Transactions we find the result of many expe- 

 riments made upon the bite of this formidable animal. 

 Captain Hall having caused a rattle-snake, about four feet 

 long, to be attached to a stake, exposed some dogs to its 

 bites. The first which was struck by its murderous fang died 

 in fifteen minutes ; the second perished after suffering two 



