204 



THE SNAKE. 



do get up into trees, then I take the liberty to re- 

 mark that he has told us nothing new. 



I have been in the midst of snakes for many years : 

 I have observed them on the ground, on trees, in 

 bushes, on bedsteads, and upon old mouldering 

 walls ; but never in my life have I seen a snake pur- 

 sue a retreating prey. I am fully satisfied, in my 

 own mindj that it is not in a snake's nature to do so. 

 A snake would follow its retreating prey in a tree 

 with just about as much success as a greyhound 

 would follow a hare through the mazes of a thick 

 wood. Snakes are always in a quiescent state just 

 before they seize their prey ; and their mode of cap- 

 turing it is by an instantaneous spring, consisting of 

 a bound which never exceeds two thirds of the 

 length of the reptile's body. 



As we are now on snakes, and as Mr. Taylor 

 informs us that the names of his birds and animals 

 are corrected from the splendid work of Audubon," 

 I beg leave to draw his particular attention to plate 

 21. of that work. It represents a rattlesnake attack- 

 ing a mocking-bird's nest. Mr. Swainson, in his 

 critique upon it in The Magazine of Natural History , 

 i. 48, 49., seems lost in admiration at its excellence. 

 He says (after lauding plate 17.)? The same poetic 

 sentiment and masterly execution characterises this 

 picture." " Pictoribus atque poetis," &c. The 

 mouth of the rattlesnake is wide open, and the fangs 

 are the first things to attract the inspector s notice, 

 being by far the most conspicuous feature in it. 

 There they ar^ on elephant [folio] with their points 

 curved upwards ! The artist, in his notes on the 



