423 ([return])
[ Dr. Günther, ‘Reptiles of British India,’ p. 262.]
424 ([return])
[ Mr. J. Mansel Weale, ‘Nature,’ April 27, 1871, p. 508.]
425 ([return])
[ ‘Journal of Researches during the Voyage of the “Beagle,”’ 1845, p. 96. I have compared the rattling thus produced with that of the Rattle-snake.]
426 ([return])
[ See the account by Dr. Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 196.]
427 ([return])
[ The ‘American Naturalist,’ Jan. 1872, p. 32. I regret that I cannot follow Prof. Shaler in believing that the rattle has been developed, by the aid of natural selection, for the sake of producing sounds which deceive and attract birds, so that they may serve as prey to the snake. I do not, however, wish to doubt that the sounds may occasionally subserve this end. But the conclusion at which I have arrived, viz. that the rattling serves as a warning to would-be devourers, appears to me much more probable, as it connects together various classes of facts. If this snake had acquired its rattle and the habit of rattling, for the sake of attracting prey, it does not seem probable that it would have invariably used its instrument when angered or disturbed. Prof. Shaler takes nearly the same view as I do of the manner of development of the rattle; and I have always held this opinion since observing the Trigonocephalus in South America.]