NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. fj 



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

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

 tune to come perpendicular over him \ on this it will ftand ftill, 

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

 pelled, it begins to cry iadly, and drops direcHy 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 inveftigate. So milch is to be obferved 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 lhape *; Olaus Mag- 

 nus fays, in his Hift. Septentr. L. xxi. c. 2,8. That in this country serpents with 

 is to be found a Serpent, called Amphifbena, with two heads, raanyheads * 

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

 for it : he had preserved 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 fhould happen to fee it unawares and 

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

 Dragon, with fovea heads and necks, on a thick body, and along 



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

 mal, cap 21. tells us, Cauda ad terram adniti, reliquio erefto corpore, toto cmtture 

 emmente&patilatimlaxatoorehiante,volucresfuper volantes, tametfi fublime D feran- 

 tur, iua alpiratione, tanquam amatorio .quodam, ad fe attrahere allicerc. P. S When 

 I wrote this I met with, in Biblioth. Britannique, Tom. xii. P. I. p. I?6 an extracl 

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

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

 1 UX , §S2fT 3 a . Sonn £ ttes ; J h * unowned Sir Hans Sloane, as an author, is of opinion 

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

 Snaites) firft bites and wounds the bird, and then, lying under the 7 branch of the 



TccuZlr i l u?- S ^° Wnt0 ' w ^ hes >^^ may dropdown into the mouth of its 

 execuaoner. But in this country they affure me quite the contrary to what has been 

 faid, averring the unhurt bird's fluttering in the air over the Snake's open mouth C 

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



from ^ » agam W ^ kfS u ert r y - What l ha * e fet d ™» is w ^at I cannot vo^ch 

 from my own experience j 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- 



Uirn Tnd fc * I Tr ^ T £ l00fe ° n the ^ t0 a Snake ' * made a'f w 

 aT the whir ^n ™ 1 an t th £ nmndi ^ into the Snake's open mouth, who 

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



PartI1 ' L pointed 



