NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 3 ? 



of a yard, with his mouth opened, till a lark, a fwallow, or 

 ibme low flying bird, in its flight happens to have the misfor- 

 tune to come perpendicular over him ; on this it will ftand {till 

 tho' at fome fathoms height ; and finding itfelf rrefiftibly im- 

 pelled, it begins to cry fadly, and drops dire&ly into the Ser- 

 pent's mouth, who well knows how to feparate the feathers, and 

 throw them out. 



That this happens is certain ; but how thofe rays or effluvia 

 that may arife from the natural powers of the Snake, with which 

 it, as it were, fucks the birds down to its mouth, I leave for 

 others to investigate. So much is to be obierved however, that 

 the Lord of Nature, who ordains one creature for the other's 

 food, has given the Serpent in this a power which does not al- 

 together feem to agree with his form and fhape * Olaus Mag- 

 nus fays, in his Hift. Septentr. L. xxi. c. 28. That in this" country serpent, with 

 is to be found a Serpent, called Amphifbena, with two heads, manyheads ° 

 one at each end, and that it goes forwards with both, moving 

 either way. The fame is related by Odoardus Dapper, about 

 a fort of Serpents in America ; but I have not heard it in this 

 country confirmed by any body. Mr Edward Chriftie, re&or of 

 the parifh of Tyfnes, and dean of Sundhordlehn, allured me 

 that he had a fmall Serpent, with two heads on one body and 

 tail ; fo that each head had a moderate part of the body divided 

 for it : he had preferved it a long while in fpirits of wine, but at 

 laft threw it away at the requeft of his wife, who had an averfion 

 to it, and was afraid fhe mould happen to fee it unawares and 

 be terrified. This puts me in mind of a Serpent, or young 

 Dragon, with feven heads and necks, on a thick body, and a long 



* Concerning a large fort of Serpents in Phrygia, .ffilianus, in his Lib. ii. de Ani- 

 mal, cap. 21. tells us, Cauda ad terrain adniti, reliquio ereito corpore, toto outturo 

 cminente & paulatim laxato ore hiante, volucres fuper volantes, tametfi fublimeYeran- 

 tur, fua afpiratione, tanquam amatorio quodam, ad fe attrahere allicere P S When 

 I wrote this I met with, in Biblioth. Britannique, Tom. xii. P. i. p. 136. an extraft 

 of philofophical tranfaftions de anno 1734, M. Jun. Jul. Aug. and there is, art 1 a 

 treatife, called, Conjectures fur le pouvoir de charmer ou de fafciner, qu'on attribue 

 aux Serpens a Sonnettes. The renowned Sir Hans Sloane, as an author, is of opinion 

 that the American Rattle-fnake (and here we attribute the fame faculty to the common 

 Snakes) firft bites and wounds the bird, and then, lying under the branch of the 

 tree where the bird is flown to, watches, that it may drop down into the mouth of its 

 executioner. But in this country they allure me quite the contrary to what has been 

 faid, averring the unhurt bird's fluttering in the air over the Snake's open mouth. Nor 

 does it to me feem probable that the Serpent mould let his prey flip out of his mouth 

 to catch it again with left certainty. What I have fet down is what I cannot vouch 

 From my own experience ; but have it from thofe that I have no reafon to doubt. 



In the Hamburgh Magazine we meet with Doct. C. J. Sprenger's famous experi- 

 ment made with a moufe that was let loofe on the ground to a Snake : it made a few 

 turns, and fqueaked a little, and then run direct into the Snake's open mouth, who 

 all the while lay ftiU. Might the Newtonian attraction take place here ? 



Part ll - L pointed 



