ASCRIBED TO THE RATTLE-SNAKE. 59 



llnce, I had an opportunity of obferving the foliovvlngclrcum- 

 fiance. A fraall bird, our fnow-bird *, had been put into a 

 cage containing a large rattle-fnake. The little animal had 

 been thus imprifoned for feveral hours, vviien I firft faw it. 

 It exhibited no figns of fear, but hopped about from the floor 

 of the cage to its rooft, and frequently flew and fat upon the 

 fnake'sback. Its chirp was no ways tremulous; but perfectly 

 natural ; it ate the feeds which were put into the cage, and 

 by its whole adions, I think, mod evidently demonfrrcited, 

 that its fituation was not uneafy. 



I do not relate this latter fad with any intention to difproveNo mtphitic 

 the notion, that the rattle-fnake poiTeflTes the faculty of charm- emitted^y^ihe 

 ing. For the obfervation was made on the feventeenlh offnakeinthe 

 Jaft month, which is fomewhat earlier than the time when our^^P"™^"'* 

 fnakes ufually come out of their dens. The fnake, too, which 

 was the fubjeft of the experiment, appeared to be very languid, 

 and had not eaten any thing for a confiderable lime. We 

 ought not, therefore, to fuppofe him poflelfed of the fafcinating 

 faculty at this period; fmce, I prefume, that this faculty, 

 did it exift at all, is fubfervient to the purpofe of procuring 

 the reptile its food. The fad is, perhaps, valuable in another 

 point of view. It feems to fliow, it does fliovv, that tlie 

 mephitic vapour proceeding from the rattle-fnake, allowing 

 that fuch a vapour really exifled, was, in no refped, injurious 

 to the bird. 



If the mephitic vapour of the rattle-fnake were produdive nor '" the v/ood:; 

 of the efix^ds attributed to it by Mr. de la Cepede, and other ^^ '^''^^' 

 •writers; and, efpecially, if this vapour extended its influence 

 to animals fituated at a confiderable diflance from the reptile, • 

 the atmofphere of the rattle-fnake would often be a kind of 

 Avernus, which many animals would avoid, and whicii would 

 generally cccafion the ficknefs or death of thofe that were fo 

 unfortunate as to come within its fphere. But how difierent 

 is the cafe ! The abodes of the rattle-fnake are the favourite 

 haunts of frogs, and many fpecies of birds, which often pafs 

 the feafons of their amours and generation in clouds of me- 

 phitifm ; uninjured, and undeftroyed. How often has the 

 rattle-fnake been known to continue, for days, at the bottom 

 of a tree, or even a fmall bufi), upon the branches of which 



* The Emberiza hyemalisof Linrxus. 



thfs 



