The most interesting of the birds of this part is the wild turkey, which was formerly extremely numerous, and is still pretty common. A large cock was sold at Harmony for a quarter of a dollar. A young man in the neighbourhood, who supplied the place with this delicate game, had often ten or fifteen hanging about his horse at the same time. The pheasant or heathcock is found in these forests, but in no great numbers. The prairie hen is common in the prairies of Illinois, and comes in large flocks to the neighbourhood of Harmony, as soon as the cold weather and snow set in. Partridges abound, and so do parrots (_Psitt. Carolinensis_) which remain here during the winter. No other kind of parrot seems to bear so great a degree of cold as this. We often saw them flying about in the forests, feeding on the fruit of the plane, when Reaumur's thermometer was at 11° below zero. In the mild climate of the Ohio and Wabash they remain all the year through. They are amusing birds in a cage, and become very tame.
There are but few species of amphibia in the country about Harmony. Soft shell turtles and several kinds of _emys_ are numerous, such as the snapping turtle (_E. serpentina_), likewise _E. geographica_, _picta_, _pulchella_, &c.
There are several lizards, but no great number of species. The rattle-snake is seldom seen, this country not being sufficiently dry and stony; the copper-head, on the contrary, is said not to be rare, but I cannot speak with certainty. The hognose-snake is very common. There are many kinds of adder in the Wabash that are not venomous.
The proteus (_Menobranchus lateralis_, Harl.) of the Ohio, and of the great Canadian lakes, is found in the Wabash. The rude inhabitants have many superstitious notions and fables respecting several kinds of animals, especially serpents. Of the glass-snake (_Ophisaurus ventralis_), which easily breaks to pieces, they say, that when the pieces are placed together, they immediately unite: they affirm that the horn-snake, which has a horn or sting at the end of its tail, takes it in its mouth, and then runs along like a hoop; and that if it passes a tree it wounds it with its sting, which always makes the tree die. Mr. Thomas Say was once informed that a [pg. 78] planter had brought one of these snakes, and would prove the truth of this assertion. He sent for the man, and found that he had the tail of one of these snakes carefully wrapped up. Mr. Say asked him whether he must die if he pricked himself with this horn? The man answered "undoubtedly." Mr. Say immediately pricked himself with the horn and drew blood, but was not affected by it; and the impostor, who affirmed that he had witnessed the effects of the sting, excused himself by saying that he had been deceived by a neighbour who gave him the snake. The inhabitants of the country generally believe that venomous serpents sting both with the tongue and with the tail, that they fascinate other animals, an old, long since refuted fable, which, however, is occasionally revived in American journals, with other stories of a similar kind.