74 
RATTLE-SNAKE. 
The animal is thus described in a general way by 
Catesby: “ The colour of the head of this rattle- 
snake is brown, the eye red, the upper part of the 
body of a brownish yellow, transversely marked 
with irregular broad black lists. The rattle is 
usually of a brown colour, composed of several 
horny membranous cells, of an undulated pyramidal 
figure, which are articulated one within another, 
so that the point of the first cell reaches as far as 
the basis or protuberant ring of the third, and so on ; 
which articulation being very loose, gives liberty to 
the parts of the cells that are inclosed within the 
outward rings to strike against the sides of them, 
and so to cause the rattling noise which is heard 
when the snake shakes its tail.” 
When they pass from one place to another they 
glide slowly along with the head close to the 
ground, and in this manner they sometimes enter 
houses unperceived by the inhabitants ; a remark- 
able instance of which is mentioned by Catesby, 
who was residing in the house of Colonel Blake, 
of Carolina, and had just left his bed-room, when 
the maid, on turning down the sheets, discovered a 
rattle-snake coiled up in the middle of the bed. 
Some time before this happened, one of these 
reptiles, about eight feet long, was sliding into the 
same gentleman’s house; where he would probably 
have concealed himself if the family had not been 
alarmed by the repeated outcries of the hogs, dogs, 
and poultry, who, says Catesby, seemed all united 
in their hatred against him, showing the greatest 
