File:An historical, geographical, commercial, and philosophical view of the United States of America, and of the European settlements in America and the West-Indies (1796) (14760782301).jpg

Identifier: historicalgeogra04wint (find matches)
Title: An historical, geographical, commercial, and philosophical view of the United States of America, and of the European settlements in America and the West-Indies
Year: 1796 (1790s)
Authors: Winterbotham, William 1763-1829
Subjects: Zoology
Publisher: New York : Printed by Tiebout and O'Brien, for John Reid
Contributing Library: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Princeton Theological Seminary Library

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ll channel ; thefe teeth may be erefted or compreffed ;when in the aftion of biting, they force out of a gland near their roots thefatal jr.ice ; this is received into the round orifice of the teeth, conveyedthrough the tube into the channel, and thence with uncring dire£lion intothe wouwd. • The tail is furnilhed with a rattle, confifting of joints loofely eonnefled ; thenumber uncertain, depending, as is pretended, on the age of the animal, itreceiving with every year a nev/ joint. Authors mention forty and feventy, Rattlefnakes grow to the length of eight feet, aud, according to a newfpa-prr account, to fourteen. They fwarm in the lefs inhabited parts of North-America ; now almoftextirpated in the populous ; none found farther north than the mountains nearlake Champlain ; but in the fouth infeft South-America, even as far as Brafil.Love woods and lofty hills, efpecially where the ftrata are rocky or chalky :the pafs near Niagara abounds with them. Being flow of motion, they frc-
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OF AMERICAN RJ^PTILES, 405 COLUBER. Familiar-fnake, - Coluber, aeftivus, Porracious do. - - mifterizans, Croffed do. - - iimus, Water-viper, * - - punftatus. quent the fides of rills, to make prey of frogs, or of fuch animals that refortthere to quench their third ; are generally found during fummcr in pairs ; inwinter, colleft in multitudes, and retire beneath the ground, beyond the reachof froft : tempted by the warmth of a fpring day, they are often obferved tocreep out weak and languid : a perfon has feen a piece of ground covered withthem, and killed with a rod between fixty aftd feventy, till overpowered withthe ftench, he was obliged to retire. They couple in Auguft, and then are moft dangerous ; are viviparous, andbring forth in June, about twelve young ones : between that and Septemberthey acquire the length of a foot. Providence has given mankind a fecurity againft the bite of thefe dreadfulreptiles, for it does not often fail warning the paffenger of its vicinity, by therat

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