gQ ON THE FASCINATING FACULTY 



the tliru(h or cat-bird are rearing their young ! This would be a 



fuitable fitiiation for the mephitic vapour to exert its noxious 



influence; but, in our woods, fuch influence has never been 



perceived. 



Other inflances Birds of the eagle and the hawk kind have been feen to 



inpioo . fo?.\\ for a confiderable time, above the fpot occupied by a 



ralile-fnake, and at length to dart upon the reptile, and 



carry it to their young. Neither the parent-bird nor its 



young ones, have ever been known to receive any injury 



from the fnake's vapour. Poffibly it may be faid, this vapour 



was diffipated, or greatly diluted, in palling through the 



air. 



Whether otiier A mephific, or fetid, vapour emanates from the bodies of 



animals emit many animals, befides the rattle-fnake : from the opoITum *, 

 mephuic va- ' ■' , . ' 



pour. and the pole-cat f , for inflance. The vapour of thefe qua- 



drupeds would be as likely to affeft birds, &c. with afphyxy, 

 as that of the rattle-fnake. And poffibly it does. There is, 

 certainly, one thing in favour of the fuppofition. The opoflum, 

 in particular, is noted for his cunning in catching birds. 



I (hall conclude this part of my memoir by obferving, that 



the odour of the rattle-fnake is faid to be agreeable to fome 



perfons. 



QuciVion, if the Mr. de la Cepede's fecond mode of explariation is much 



agitated animals ^^ore plauiible. I have already obferved t, that it was the 



teen already fyftem of Sir Hans Sloane, who affected to ground it upon 



^'''•^cn. experiments. It is adopted by the author of the well-written 



account of de la Cepede's Natural Hijiory of Serpents, in the 



Monthly Revietv §. 



Mr. de la Cepede prefumes that, '* for the moft part, when 

 a bird, a fquirrel, &c. has been feen precipitating Itfelf from 

 the top of a tree, into the jaws of a rattle-fnake, it had been 

 already bitten ; and that its w hole conduft, fuch as its crying, 

 its agitation, its leaping from branch to branch, &c. are all 

 effefts induced by the violent operation of the poifon, thrown 

 into its body, by the reptile. 



* Didelphis OpofTum. f Viverra Putorlus, 



J See pager, 30 & 34, note. 



§ Appendix to the fecond volume of the Monthly Review ea- 

 Inrgcd. p. 511. 



An 



