RATTLE-SNAKE. 
79 
Mr. Pennant quotes Kalm for a similar account, 
and describes the snake as lying at the bottom of 
a tree on which a squirrel is seated. His fiery 
eyes are stedfastly fixed upon the little animal, who 
becomes greatly agitated, and immediately begins a 
most piteous outcry. This cry, it seems, is so pecu- 
liar, and so well known to the Indians, that when- 
ever they hear it, they are certain a snake is pre- 
sent. The unhappy squirrel runs repeatedly part 
of the way up and down the tree, at each turn com- 
ing lower, till at last it leaps down to the snake, 
and with the most lamentable cries runs into his 
jaws, which are already wide open for its reception. 
During the whole of the process the snake continues 
at the bottom of the tree with his eyes fixed on the 
squirrel ; with which his attention is so engrossed, 
that a considerable noise may be made by a person 
accidentally passing, without at all diverting him 
from his object. 
The fascinating power does not seem to belong 
exclusively to the rattle-snake, since Le Vaillant, 
in his new Travels into the Interior of Africa, 
assures us, that he saw a bird on the branch of 
a tree, trembling as if in convulsions ; and a large 
species of snake on another branch about four 
feet distant, on which it was lying with out- 
stretched neck and fiery eyes, gazing steadily at the 
poor animal. The bird was apparently denied the 
power to escape, and seemed in great agony. One 
of the party killed the snake, and found that the 
bird was also dead. They attributed its death en- 
