LECTURE VII. 
37 
shape, growing over each other, and so consti- 
tuted as to give a strong rattling sound when the 
animal shakes them, which it never fails to do 
when irritated or disturbed, and may thus be said 
to warn other animals of their danger in making 
too near an approach. The common Rattle-Snake 
(for there are several different species) is naturally 
a slow-moving animal, and therefore all the tales 
that are told of its darting with the rapidity of 
lightning about its native woods and plains, must 
be considered as mere imaginary description. The 
Count de Cepede in his history of the Rattle- 
Snake commences with a Buffonian flourish of this 
kind, and assures us that “ the traveller wandering 
in the midst of the burning solitudes of Africa, 
and fainting under the midday heat, feels not a 
more thrilling horror on hearing at a distance the 
tremendous voice of the Tyger roaring for his prey, 
than he wdio passing through the moist forests of 
the new wmrld experiences, when in the midst of 
beauty and fragrance he is on a sudden surprized 
by the sound of the Rattle-Snake, ready to dart 
upon him in order to destroy him.” The Rattle- 
Snake on the contrary, according to the united 
testimony of all real observers, never attacks or 
