BEKl'ENTS. 



828 



II. SERPENTS. 



The serpents are distinguished by their long and slender 

 bodies without limbs, and by the great expansibility of their jaws, 

 mouth, and throat, which frequently enables them to swallow ani 

 mals of greater thickness than themselves. They are always pro- 

 vided with teeth, which are sharp, and bent backwards. Serpents 

 are divided into the venomous, and those which are not venomous. 

 The latter are the most numerous, and include the largest animals, 

 .as the Boa Constrictor and the Anaconda. The former are gene- 

 rally armed with fangs, with which they infuse poison into the 

 wounds they inflict. The largest and most celebrated of these 

 animals is the rattlesnake. 



The Kattlesnake is a native of America. Its name ia 

 derived from the loose bony struc- 

 ture at the extreinity of its tail, 

 called the rattle, and which by the 

 sound of its movements gives 

 timely intimation of the vicinity 

 of this terrible reptile. Fortu- 

 nately, its disposition is exceed- 

 ingly sluggish, and it invariably 

 sounds its rattle when irritated or disturbed. Its bite is inevitably 

 mortal, and death always ensues within a few hours after. 



The deadly weapons with which the venomous serpents are 

 armed, are two long curved fangs 

 belonging to the upper jaw, and 

 moving on a hinge by which they 

 lie flat in the mouth, when not 

 wanted. An aperture exists in 

 the point of the fang, by which a 

 poisonous fluid, secreted in a gland 

 at the base of the tooth, is poured 

 into the wound, and, mixing with the blood, rapidly carries its 

 deadly influence throughout the entire system. A short time 

 uuce an American physician was exhibiting a caged rattlesnake to 



Rattlesnake, 



Head of Rattlesnake. 



