CROTALUS, the rattlesnake, in natu ral history, a genus of Amphibia, of the order of Serpentes. Generic character : scuta on the abdomen ; scuta and scales beneath the tail ; rattle at the end of the tail. There are five species, all natives of America. The C. horridus, or banded rattle-snake, inhabits North America, and is from three to five feet in length, of a yellowish brown colour. The rattle is fixed at the end of the tail, and is com posed of dry and hollow bones, nearly of the same form and size. The tip of every bone superior to the two last,passes with in the two immediately beneath it, thus producing a firm coherence, and also an increase of noise, as during the sounding of the rattle each bone strikes against two others. The object of this curious instru ment has not a little perplexed natural ists, and some have considered it design ed to warn other animals of their danger, while others have regarded it as intend ed, indeed, to sound the alarm of peril; but such an alarm as is followed by con sternation, under which the affrighted victim experiences a prostration of all its faculties, and is bereaved at once of in telligence and motion. These animals were supposed to posiess the power of charming others, or of operating upon them by some ineffable power, to induce them to drop from their stations into the very mouth of the destroyer. This opi nion, long prevailing, but now exploded, not unnaturally arose from the circum stance just mentioned. The appearance of the rattlesnake to these creatures, who instantly recognise it for their mor tal enemy, and the sound of that instru ment, which is as it were the signal of execution, impresses them occasionally with a degree of terror, which withers all the energies of their frame. These animals have been known to enter houses in America, and even to insinuate them selves into beds. They move with great slowness ; and, with respect to all other animals but those which they subsist on, never inflict any injury but in retaliation, wounding on provocation, and not in ag. gression. Their bite is not only poison ous, but rapidly fatal, and has been known to kill a man in a few minutes. When the bite is received in a fleshy part, the Indians apply the knife with all possible speed. In slight cases they
have recourse to various roots : and in some cases they suck the wound : but when a principal vein or artery is pene trated with the animal's full strength, they abandon their case as hopeless, and apply no remedy whatever. In the ter ritories of America but thinly inhabited, rattle snakes are abundant ; but in others they are almost exterminated. They are seldom seen farther north than Lake Champlain, or south than Brazil. They are extremely fond of frogs. In summer they are generally seen in in win. ter they are gregarious, and secure them selves from the rigours of the season by withdrawing deeply in the earth, whence a fine day sometimes induces them to ap pear, but in a state of great weakness, in which they may be attacked without dan ger, and in which a single person has sometimes destroyed with a stick several score in a single morning. The largest ever seen by Catesby, who, while in Caro lina, paid particular attention to them, was about eight feet long, and nearly nine pounds in weight. It is mentioned by Dr. Shaw, from Bouvais, that this snake, which is viviparous, possesses the mode of securing its young ascribed to the Eu ropean viper, of swallowing them during the period of danger, and disgorging them after it is over. 111r. Bouvais hav ing inadvertently molested a rattlesnake in his walk, saw the animal instantly coil itself up, and distend its jaws, into which five young ones rushed with great rapi dity. He watched it for about a quarter of an hour, at the end of which time he saw them thrown up. To remove the possibility of deception, he then re-ap proached, and saw the parent open the same asylum, and the offspring avail themselves of it with the same celerity ; after which the snake moved beyond his observation. From experiments made on various, dogs by the bite of this snake, one was killed in a quarter of a minute ; another bitten afterwards, in two hours, and a third, bitten last, in above three.
It was a matter of natural curiosity to ascertain whether the animal would de stroy itself by its bite, and being provok ed by some means to inflict on itself a wound, it expired in about twelve mi nutes afterwards.