ASCRIBED TO THE RATTLE-SNAKE. JJJ 



mediately returned to the fame fpot. Mr. Rittenhoufe now Fafts and ob- 

 went to the place where the bird alighted, and, to his great f^'!f.''^"y^' 

 aftonifhment, he found it perched upon the back of a large power of fafd* 

 black-fnake, which it was pecking with its beak. At this nation afcri bed 

 very time, the ferpent was in (he ad of fwaliowing a young 

 bird, and from the enlarged fize of the reptile's belly it was 

 evident, that it had already fwallowed two or three other 

 young birds. After the fnake was killed, the old bird flew 

 away. 



Mr. Rittenhoufe fays, that the cry and a6lions of this bird 

 had been precifely fimilar to thofe of a bird which is faid to 

 be under the fafcinating influence of a ferpent ; and I doubt 

 not that this very inftance would, by many credulous perfons, 

 have been adduced as a proof of the exigence of fuch a 

 faculty. But what can be more evident than the general ex- 

 planation of this cafe? The maize-thief builds its neft in low 

 buihes, the bottoms of which are the ufual haunts of the black- 

 fnake. The reptile found no difficulty in gliding up to the 

 neft, from which, mod probably in the abfence of the mother, 

 it had taken the young ones. Or it had feized the young 

 ones, after they had been forced from the neft, by the mother. 

 In either cafe, the mother had come to prevent them from 

 being devoured. 



We are well acquainted with the common food of the rattle- 

 fnake. It is the great-frog * of our rivers, creeks, and other 

 waters. The fnake lies infidioufly in wait for his prey, at 

 the water-edge. He employs no machinery of enchantment. 

 He trufts to his cunning and his ftrength. 



A very ingenious f friend of mine, who has devoted con- 

 fiderable attention to the natural hifiory of the rattle-fnake, 

 and who has difiedled many of them, affures me, that he never 

 faw but one inftance in which a bii'd was found in the ftomach 

 of this reptile, and this bird was the chewink, or ground- 

 robin t. In another inflance, he faw a ground-fquirrel § 

 taken out of one of thefe reptiles. In every other cafe, fo 

 long as the food retained enough of the form to be dif- 

 tinguiflied, the flomach was found to contain the great-fro^, 

 which I have mentioned. 



* Rana ocellato of LInn?eus. f Timothy Matlack, Efq. 



t This is the Fringilla erythrophthslma of Linnwus, 

 " % The Sciurus ftriatus of Linnseus. 



Another 



