352 CLASS REPTILIA. 



They are also attracted by poultry-yards and aviaries ; 

 they often lie in ambush in parasite plants, in the lianas 

 which surround the trees of the forest when fallen from age, 

 or remain covered up in the nests of birds, whose eggs or 

 young they have devoured, also in the holes of rats, &c. 



These reptiles possess an activity and vivacity of motion 

 truly alarming. A ferocious instinct induces them' to dart 

 impetuously upon passengers, either by suddenly letting go 

 the sort of springs which their body forms, rolled in concen- 

 tric and superpoised circles, and thus shooting like an arrow 

 from the bow of a vigorous archer, or pursuing them by a 

 series of rapid and multiplied leaps, or climbing up trees 

 after them, or even threatening them in a vertical position. 



The effects of the bite of these serpents are in general very 

 terrible, but vary considerably according to a multitude of 

 circumstances. The tumefaction of the part, which soon be- 

 comes livid and gangrenous, nausea, convulsions, cardialgia, 

 and an invincible somnolency, are the ordinary symptoms of 

 the action of their poison, which either produces death in the 

 course of some hours, or, at most, of some days, or causes 

 for several years, vertigoes, paralysis, more or less extensive, 

 phagedenic ulcers of a malignant character, and a variety of 

 other distressing infirmities. 



It is, therefore, in nowise astonishing that the trigonoce- 

 phalus is an object of horror, not only to man, but also to 

 animals. The horse trembles and prances violently in its 

 presence ; rats scud away at its approach, sending forth cries 

 of terror ; birds especially, against which it wages inveterate 

 war, manifest their aversion to it by repeated clamours ; and 

 the lowia indicator^ by pursuing it with its cries, often indi- 

 cates to man the place of its retreat. 



The African races, which form a great portion of the popu- 

 lation of Martinique, constantly preserve certain organs of 



