2 G6 
F A S 
fpecies, or thofe fnakes which prey upon birds, are parti- 
ci'.hiriy fet fortii. When impelled by hunger, arid inca¬ 
pable of fatisfying it by the capture of animals on the 
ground, they begin to glide up trees or bufhes, upon 
which a bird has its'neft. The bird is not ignorant of the 
ierpent’s objeft. Site leaves her neft, whether it contains 
eggs or young ones, and endeavours to'oppofe the reptile’s 
progress. In doing tiiis, (he is aftuated by the ftrength 
of her-inftimSiive attachment to her eggs, or of affection 
to her young. Her cry is •melancholy, her motions arc 
tremulous. Site expofes herfelf to the mod imminent 
danger. Sometimes flie approaches fo near the reptile, 
that he feizes her as his prey. But this is far from being 
univerfally the cafe. Often, (lie compels, the ferpent to 
leave the tree,, and then returns to her neff. Horace, 
though, he has not, like his contemporary, Virgil, given 
any great proofs of his knowledge in natural hi(lor-y, tip- 
pears, to have known, full well, the anxiety of birds for 
the prefervution of their young : 
“ Ut afiiilens implamibus pul/is avis 
“ Ser pentium allapjus timet .” Epod. i. 
“ The author of thefe two fine lines, had he lived in 
America, the land of fafeinarion, would, 1 am inclined to 
think, have difbelieved the whole (lory. They would 
have been'a clue to light and truth on this fubjeft. In¬ 
deed, every fportfman in our own country knows, that at 
the commencement of the (hooting feafon,_the old birds 
will confiantly expofe th.emfelves to danger, trailing on 
the ground, flying extremely fliort and low, and makinga 
difirefsful thrieking noife, in order to call off the attention 
of the fowler, that the young and inexperienced covey 
might have a better chance to efcape. 
“ It is a well-known faff, that,among fome fpecies of 
birds, the female, at a certain period, is accuftomed to 
compel the young ones to leave the neft ; that is, when 
the young have acquired fo much ftrength that they are 
no longer entitled to ail her care. But they ftill claim 
fome of her care. Their flights, are awkward, arid foon 
broken by fatigue. They fall to the ground, where, in 
America, they are frequently expofed to the attacks of 
the ferpent, which attempts to devour them. In this 
lituation, the mother will place herfelf upon the branch 
of a tree or bufh, in the vicinity of the ferpent. She will 
dart upon the ferpent, in order to prevent the defttuftion 
of her young : but fear, the inftinft of felf-prefervaiion, 
will compCel her to retire. She leaves the ferpent, how¬ 
ever, but fora (hort time,/arid then returns again. Often¬ 
times, file prevents the deftruftiori of her young, attacking 
the fnake with her wing, her beak, or her claws. Should 
the reptile fucceed in capturing the young, the mother is 
expofed to lefs danger. For, whilff engaged in f.vallowing 
them, he has neither inclination nor power to feize upon 
the old one. But the appetite of the- ferpent-tribe is 
great : the capacity of their (tcmachs is not lefs fo. The 
danger of the mother is at hand, when the young are de¬ 
voured. The fnake feizes upon her: ancbthis is tiie ca- 
talirophe which crowns the tale of fal'cindti'on, whether of 
the bird, or the gquirrel ! 
“ Some years (luce, the ingenious Mr. Rittenhoufe was 
induced to fuppofe, front the peculiar melancholy cry of 
a red-winged-maize-thief, (oriojiis p/icenicetts, .Linn.) that a 
fnake was at no great diftance fron) it, and that the bird 
was in 'diftrefs. He threw a (tone at the place from which 
the cry proceeded, which had the effect of driving the 
bird away. Tire poor animal, however, immediately ve- 
tnrned-to the fame fpot. Mr. Rittenhoufe, now went to 
the place where the bird alighted, 'and, to his great allo- 
nifhment, he found it perched upon the back of a large 
black-fnake, which it was pecking with its beak. At 
this very time, the ferpent was in the a£t of fw allowing a 
young bird, and from the enlarged flze of the reptile’s 
'belly it was evident that it had already Swallowed two or 
three other young birds. After the fnake was killed, 
the old bird flew-away. Mr. Rittenhoufe fays, that the 
FAS 
cry and actions of this bird had been precifely fimila.r to 
thofe of a bird which is (aid to be under the fafcinating 
influence.of a ferpent; and I doubt not that this very in- 
ftance would, by many credulous perfons, have been ad¬ 
duced as a proof of the exi(fence of fuch a faculty. But 
what can.be more evident than the general explanation 
of this cafe : The maize-thief builds its ueft in low buflies, 
tile bottoms of which are the ufual haunts of tile black- 
fnake. The reptile found no difficulty in glicHng- up-to 
the neft, from which, nioft probably in the able nee of the 
mother, it had taken the young ones. Or it had feizeci 
the young ones, after they had been forced from the neff 
by the mother. In either cafe, the mother hud come to 
prevent them from being devoured. 
“ A black-fnake fometimes finds great difficulty in ob¬ 
taining his prey upon a tree, In fupport of this affertion, 
I could adduce many Lifts. I (hall content myfelf, how¬ 
ever, with relating only one inftance, which (trikingly 
iilufirates my pofiticn : A black-fnake was feen climbing 
up a tree, evidently with tlie viyw pf procuring the young 
birds.in the neft of a Baltimore 7 bird. This bird fu fpends 
its neft at the extremity of a branch. The branch to which 
the bird had affixed its neft, being very (lender, the ferpent 
found it impoffi’ole to come at the neft by crawling along 
it: he, therefore, took the advantage of another branch, 
which hung above the neft, and twitting a fmall portion 
of his tail around it, he was enabled, by (Retching the re¬ 
mainder of his body, to reach the neft, into which he in- 
(inuated his head, and thus glutted his appetite with the 
young birds.” 
Upon the whole, there feems very little doubt but that 
Dr. Barton is cor reft, as well as judicious, in his concLu- 
fions on this fubjeft. If fo, the power of fafeination muff 
fall to the ground, as that of witchcraft has long (nice 
done ; and of which delufive doftrine this feems a meie 
fragment. Indeed it wonld very ill accord with the bene¬ 
volent plan of an all-wife and equal Providence, to be¬ 
llow upon any one race of its creatures an exclufive power 
of drawing into inevitable deftruftion another race, over 
which its bountiful protection and care is manifefted in 
an extraordinary degree ; as ftated underOriNiTHOLOGV. 
The truth, therefore, feems to be, that this (hrieking and 
fluttering of the parent bird over the menacing position 
of the ferpent, are no more than the natural expreffions 
of anxiety in a mother, for the care and iafety of her in¬ 
fant progeny. This view of fafeination agrees alfo much 
more juftly with- the general in Hindis of the whole lix 
clafiesof animals: for though they are fubjefted, for the 
wifeft of purposes', to prey on one another, yet this is done, 
not by witchcraft, but by wiles, and fnares, and cunning 
artifices, more or lefs obf’ervtible in the economy of every 
diftinft race, for the fuftenance and fupport of life, even 
from the fmalieft animalcule, to the royal tiger of Ben¬ 
gal ; and is moft ftfikingly exemplified in the inftinfts 
and 1 ft.bits of the te(hideous and finny tribes. See account 
of the Cancer ruricola , vol. iii. p. 706 ; alfo the articles 
ENTOMOLOGY, KcLMINTOLOG V, ICHTHYOLOGY, &C. 
1'AS'CINE'S,' [ [French.] In fortification, faggots 
made of the twigs and fmall branches of trees and bruflti- 
vvood, bound up in bundles ; thefe, being mixed with 
earth, ferve to fill up ditches, to make the parapets of 
trenches', batteries, See. 
FAS'CINOUS, adj, [ fafeinum , Lat.] Caufed or afting 
by witchcraft, or enchantment. Not in uj'e. —I (hall not 
difeufs the poffibility of fafeinous difeafes, farther than re¬ 
fer to experiment. Harvey. 
FASCI'OLA, J'. [Latin; from the fimilitude of 
moft of thefe worms to a little band.] In helmintolog'y, 
the F Luke, or Gourd-yvorm ; a genus belonging to the 
■order of vermes inteftina, the charafters of which are 
thefe : body fiattifh ; an aperture or pore in the head, 
/pnd another in the abdomen. They are hermaphrodite, 
and oviparous ; and are found in the ftomach, intettines, 
or liver, of various animals. Forty-feven fpecies of this 
worm are uoyv known, and tire divided into four clafl’es, 
viz. 
