448 
NOTES TO THE 
this curious musical instrument (for so it may be called) is given 
to the snake in order to enable him to get close to his prey. 
Imagine a blazing hot day on the desolate prairie, no noise, 
everything is silence itself. We all knov^ what curious noises 
are heard on occasions like this. The whirr-whirr of a rattle- 
snake's rattle would, under these circumstances, attract the 
notice of a bird or small mammal, who could easily escape from 
his enemy by flight if he knew where his enemy was. He 
remains perfectly still, however, to listen to the unwonted noise, 
and gives the snake time to glide noiselessly up to him and strike 
him with his deadly fangs. Some time since, an American 
gentleman happened to be talking with me in my museum, when 
I suddenly played up a rattlesnake's tail. My friend, a traveller, 
who knew the sound well, immediately jumped suddenly aside 
in great alarm, thinking that I might have a rattlesnake loose in 
the room. I hear that pigs will eat rattlesnakes, and that the 
poison does not seem to affect them. I think that this may be 
possible if the venom strikes into the fatty portion of the pig's 
facer 
I know that rattlesnakes cannot play up their rattles in 
wet weather. The horn of the rattle becomes more or less 
saturated w^ith water, and no sound can then be produced from 
it. By placing a rattle in a glass of \vater, and letting it soak 
a while, I find this is the case. When it is dried the sound 
can again be produced. 
WouRALi Poison. — Gilbert White probably never heard of the 
existence of Wourali poison ; it is one of the most fearful poisons 
POT OF WOURALI POISON. 
known. It is made by the Indians in Demerara, and when made 
is kept in little gourds, as represented in the engraving. I have two 
