Ratti^esnakes. REPTILES. True Ratxi.esnakes. 
species of the three. This serpent has a very large 
head of a triangular shape, broad behind, and trun- 
cate at the snout. It has large eyes, with black pupils 
and a brilliant iris, the upper half being very bright 
yellow, and the lower black. The mouth is large, and 
provided with strong jaws. The neck is greatly 
contracted, and the body is elongated, but thick in 
proportion, even to tlve tail. This organ is short, 
conical, and sustains an uncertain number of rattles. 
The general colour is pepper-and-salt gray, with a 
central series of brown spots along the back, and a 
double series of blackish spots on each side. It is 
about sixteen inches in length. The Ground Eattle- 
snake is very common in the Southern States of 
America, and has a wide range, abounding in Carolina 
and Georgia, passing round the southern extremities of 
the Alleghanies to Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. 
It is chiefly in dry places where it is found, living 
amongst leaves and in high grass, amongst which it may 
be often seen searching for small fleld-mice, on whicli 
it feeds. Holbrook informs us that it is greatly 
dreaded, as it gives but a very slight warning with its 
rattle. Hence it is often trodden upon ; and, from its 
habit of frequently coiling itself on fallen trees, logs, or 
the stumps of felled timber, persons have been known 
to sit upon it, ignorant of its presence till bitten. It is 
a bold animal, will frequently be the aggressor, and will 
not retreat when threatened By the common people 
its bite is erroneously thought to be more destructive, 
and its venom more active, than some of the species 
which are much larger. 
TRUE RATTLESNAKES. 
There are two distinct species of Rattlesnakes — one 
peculiar to South, and the other to North America. They 
have been celebrated from the earliest periods after the 
discovery of the New World, both from the dangerous 
nature of their bite, and the peculiar appendages, called 
rattles, attached to their tails. When that vast con- 
tinent was sparsely inhabited, and formed the abode 
only of the wild Indian; before civilization had spread 
her blessings over the country — Rattlesnakes must have 
abounded to a much greater extent than they do at the 
present time. Indeed, were we to trust to the relations of 
many of our earlier travellers, America would appear to 
have been almost uninhabitable, in consequence of their 
ravages, and the terror they inspired. Like other wild 
and savage animals, however. Rattlesnakes fly before 
the advance of civilized man. According to the state- 
ments of some of the early writers on America, these 
snakes were often found seven, eight, and even ten feet 
in length, and Bartram assures us that he has often 
seen them six feet long, and as thick as a man’s thigh. 
At the present daj', however, few are found which 
arrive to any great size. To the religious respect in 
which they were originally held by the savage occupiers 
of the soil, who regarded the death of one of these 
serpents as a public calamity, has succeeded a hatred 
so inveterate that in many settlements a price has even 
been set upon their heads. They have accordingly 
become so rare, that M. Bose says that some years 
ago, in the neighbourhood of Charleston, he saw but six 
or seven individuals in the course of a year. A later 
43 
writer still, Mr. Holbrook, says: — “At present the 
Rattlesnake is seldom met with, keeping far from all 
settlements where its greatest enemy, the hog, is to be 
found. Even sportsmen are seldom under any appre- 
hension on this account.” The Rattlesnakes have a 
peculiar aspect. Their head is large, broad, triangular, 
and generally flattened through its whole extent. The 
hinder part of the cranium is covered with scales like 
those of the back; but the muzzle and temples are 
clothed in large scales in the form of plates. The 
body is stout and of a robust form, elongated, cylin- 
drical, and covered above with keeled scales. The tail 
is short, cylindrical, and rather thick, and is termi- 
nated by a series of large, dry scales, termed the rattle. 
The number of these is very uncertain, varying from 
one to thirty, or even more. These rings or scales are 
all exactly like each other in form, and often even in 
size. They are composed of a brittle, elastic, and semi- 
transparent matter, of the same nature as that of the 
ordinary scales. The one nearest to the body, and with 
which it is immediately connected, forms, as do likewise 
all the rest, a sort of a hollow quadrangular pyramid, 
the two opposite faces of which are much larger than 
the two others. United, they form a kind of sheath 
which envelops the last joints or vertebrae of the tail, 
being moulded upon them. The}' are all received within 
each other, to such an extent that only one-third of 
each is visible externally. The ring situated at the 
end of the rattle, is the only one the whole form of 
which is seen, and thus the rattle is composed exter- 
nally only of that ring and the upper thirds of the 
others. The two lower thirds of each ring, which 
cannot be seen, are placed within the following piece ; 
they occupy the hollow of it, keeping the ring in its 
place, and preventing it separating from the rest ot 
the rattle. But, as the diameter of tlrat portion of the 
ring is less than that which receives it, each one 
plays freely within the other. None of them, except 
the one nearest the body, is united to the skin of the 
animal, nor do they hold an}' connection with the body 
by any muscle, nerve, or bloodvessel. They conse- 
quently receive no nourishment from the body, and 
do not increase in size ; they form only an external 
envelope, which moves when the animal agitates its 
tail, in the same manner as any foreign body would 
move, which might be attached to it. All the rings 
of the rattle being very dry, placed one above the other, 
and having all sufficient play within each other, to rub 
mutually against each other when they are shaken, it is 
not surprising that they should produce a very sensible 
sound. “ Indeed,” says Lacepede, “ we have proved 
that a rattle of moderate size will produce a noise 
similar to that of the crumpling of a piece of parch- 
ment, which may be heard at the distance of more than 
sixty feet ; and it is much to be desired that it could be 
heard still further, in order that the a])proacli of a 
Rattlesnake, being less unforeseen, might also be less 
dangerous.” Mr. Bose, however, who has had oppor- 
tunities of seeing these reptiles alive, says that the 
noise produced by them could not be heard further otf 
than from twelve to fifteen paces ; and that when the 
animal was moving at its usual rate, it was necessary 
to be close to it, and even listen very attentively to dis- 
