As the two American continents became more widely known to Europeans, and Englishmen were seized with a desire to visit the new colonies, books of travels and descriptions multiplied too rapidly for even a passing mention in these pages; though wherever the slightest approach to natural history was included, the rattlesnake figured conspicuously. Of those works frequently quoted by naturalists, Seba’s _Rerum Naturalium Thesauri_ in 1735, of four ponderous volumes, containing text in both Latin and French, and profusely illustrated, must not be omitted, though about the _Crotalus_ he has not much new to tell us. He quotes Tyson and others, and explains that the many nearly similar names are ‘_selon la difference de prononciation des Bresiliens, qui la nomme aussi Boiquira_;’ and he thinks all these names ‘_ne désignent qu’une seule et même vipère_.’ To these various titles of ‘one and the same viper,’ we shall refer again in chap. xxiii. To the list he adds that the English call it ‘rattlesnake;’ the French, ‘_serpent à sonnettes_;’ and Latin authors, _Anguis crotalophorus_ (or the rattle-bearing snake). He also gives us another Mexican name, ‘_Ecacoatl, qui signifie le Vent, parce qu’elle rampe avec une extrème vitesse sur les rochers_.’ This extreme activity in the rattlesnake is not in accordance with our alien experience. Still we hear of it from more than one writer and in widely separated habitats. The Mexican and Brazilian words may have alluded to the rapidity of motion in striking its prey, and which in its swiftness can scarcely be followed. Or it is possible that the reptile which as a captive in our chilling climate is so slow and sluggish, may, when stimulated by a tropical sun and under peculiar excitement, occasionally exhibit a vivacity incredible to us who see it only in menageries. Regarding other species of viperine snakes, we have sometimes similar evidence; and there is nothing in the structure of the _Crotalus_ to contradict it. One more of the unpronounceable Mexican names we must inflict on the reader, to show how this serpent was distinguished among all others even in length of title. F. Fernandez, or Hernandez, in his _Animalium Mexicanum_, p. 63, A.D. 1628, calls it Teuchlacotzauhqui, because it surpasses all others in ‘_l’horrible bruit de sa sonnette_.’ As may be supposed, anybody who could see this remarkable snake on its native soil was ready to tell something about it; and from the time that Dr. Tyson dissected his specimen and made it better known to the ‘Curious,’ many other communications saw light through the pages of the _Philosophical Transactions_ during the next few years. In experimenting to discover the source of the ‘mischief,’ one skilful ‘Chyrurgeon’ proved that the gall of vipers is not venomous, only bitter.