108 



ON THE FASCINATING FACULTY 



Fails and ob 

 fervations re 

 fpcaing the 

 power 



D^on afcribed 

 to fnakes. 



habitations. Sometimes the bird or fquirrel, in attempting to 

 drive away the fnake, approach too near to their enemy, and 

 of fafci- ai'e bitten, or immediately devoured. But, from what will 

 afterwards be faid, it will appear that thefe inflances are not 

 {o common as is generally imagined. 



My inquiries concerning the feafon of the year, at which 

 any particular fpecies of birds has been feen under the fafcinat- 

 ing power of a ferpent, afforded me ftillmore fatisfadlion. In 

 almoft every infiance, I found that the fuppofed fafcinating 

 faculty of the ferpent was exerted upon the birds at the 

 particular feafon of their laying their eggs, of their hatching, 

 or of their rearing their young, ftill tender, and defencelefs. 

 I now began to fufpe6t, that the cries and fears of birds 

 fuppofed to befafcinated originated in an endeavour to prote6l 

 their neft or young. My inquiries have convinced me that 

 this is the cafe. 



I have already obferved, that the rattle-fnake does not 

 climb up trees. But the black-fnake and fome other fpecies of 

 the genus coluber do. When impelled by hunger, and in- 

 capable of fatisfying it by the capture of animals on the ground, 

 they begin to glide up trees or buflies, upon which a bird has 

 its neR.. The bird is not ignorant of the ferpent's objed. She 

 leaves her neft, whether it contains eggs or young ones, and 

 endeavours to oppofe the reptile's progrefs. In doing this, 

 fhe is aduated by the Itrength of her inflindive attachment 

 to her eggs, or of afFedlion to her young. Her cry is me- 

 lancholy, her motions are tremulous, She expofes herfelf to 

 the moft imminent danger. Sometimes, file approaches fo 

 near the reptile that he feizes her as his prey. But this is far 

 from being univerfally the cafe. Often, fhe compels the 

 ferpent to leave the tree, and then returns to her neft *. 



* Horace, though he has not, like his contemporary, Virgil, 

 given any great proofs of his knowledge in natiiral hiflory, appears 

 to have known, full well, the anxiety of birds for the prefervation 

 of their young : 



" Ut alTidens implumibus piillis avis 

 *' Serpentium allapfus timet." 



Epod. 1. 

 The author of thefe two fine lines, had he lived in America, 

 the land of fafcination, would, I am inclined to think, have dif- 

 believed, the whole flory. They would have been a clue to light 

 and truth on this fubjeft. 



It 



