IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 
71 
exhibited, have been, immediately afterwards, made to bite some 
small animal, which died in a few minutes. Cobras are usually 
three or four feet long. 
One of the worst of the poisonous snakes, is the Fer de Lance, 
which is a native of South America. In general, these creatures 
will not bite unless annoyed in some way ; but this South American 
snake will jump out of the grass, without being disturbed, and bite 
any one passing. They are very much dreaded ; but, in spite of 
that they are useful. They devour the hosts of rats with which 
that country is tormented, and which would eat up all the crops, if 
not kept down by the Fer de Lance. 
You have all heard of our North American venomous snake — 
the Rattle Snake. I need not tell you about his peculiar way of 
warning people to get out of his way, by his rattle. He lives on 
rats and mice, reptiles and small birds. When the weather gets 
too cold for him, he retires to some quiet place — a hole in a rock 
or a cave, or the wet ground, under some patch of long-leaved 
moss. There he will curl up with five or six other snakes, and 
spend his long winter. 
The last picture 
I shall give you, is of 
a Horned Puff Ad- 
der, a native of South 
Africa, and as dread- 
ful as any of those 
terrible creatures. 
It is slow in its 
motions, and is said 
to spring backwards 
to bite. It is four 
feet long, sometimes 
more. It has a habit 
of burying itself in 
the sand, so as only 
to leave out its head ; 
%^^r but unfortunate is 
the creature that 
comes near that ugly head. 
The Boa Constrictors have a very different way of killing 
their prey, as you have doubtless read. They coil themselves 
