The weekly Shasta courier., 1872-12-28
RattlesnakeS.

About the 10th of May last, DR.. Cotton
caught, at Prospect, in Giles County. Ten
nessee, rattlesnake four feet three inches
long and five inches in circumference. When
captured, it had eight rattles and hutton.
Since that time, it has been confined in a
glass case. 1t has not partaken of one par
ticle of food, though it has been tempted
with mice and other small animals on which
the reptile is accustomed to feed. The
snake manifested no inconvenience from its
confinement, nor did it lose any in size or
bodily vitality. Its eyes continued 20 glis-
ten like magnetic steel, and its lancinating
fangs to protrude at the appearance of any
one near the case. DR.. Cotton thought all
the while it was male. Though small nice
and rats have been confined in the case with
the snake until their own hunger urged them
to bite at its scaly hide, the serpent refused
to give them notice or to partake of food.
On two or three occasions, it has taken small
quantities of water One day at one o'clock,
on going into the back-room of the store,
where the case is kept, it was discovered
that the snake had given birth to four young
snakes, and by three o'clock she had given
birth to three more, making seven in all.
The young snakes made their appearance
one at time, and in coied or striking DO
sition, their eyes glistening and their enven-
omed tongues continually darting out. The
young ones are each from nine to fifteen in
ches in length, and in state of perfect de-
velopment. They are quick of motion, and
possess no ordinary spinal vitality, as they
crawl readily to the top of the case, with
celerity across, and around it from end to
end. What is most singular, and contrary
to all the received notions concerning the
reptile, each Of these young snakes has a
full button on the tail, which refutes the
idea that they have to be six months old
before the formation of the button. The
old snake was lying in her case in lethar-
gic state, with some indications, as the doc
tor thought, of increasing the coiling family
The young snakes coil around her, and un-
der and over her; she seems to have for
them the maternal affection or instinct.
This snake has been in captivity near four
months, yet during all that period she has
partaken OF not morsel of food, and has
brooded her seven young. AS to exactly
how long from inception the process OF
CESSATION or incubation has been going on,
there is no means of ascertaining, as we can
only date from her captivity. DIR. Cotton
informs us that he once before kept in the
same case a large-sized rattlesnake for three
years and nine months, and that he studied
closely its various moods and changes. This
snake, he says. did not partake of a particle
of food for the first nine months, and but
little water. He then gave it mice, rats,
etc., putting the same into the case alive
and it commenced devouring them vora-
ciously. 1t never would tonch tame mouse.
or dead one, fresh as it might be. When
a young rat was put into the case, it would
plant its unerring fang in some part of the
limb or body, and then wait until it died,
from the thorough inoculation of the poison.
When quite dead, it would turn it over,
take it head foremost. and swallow it, evi-
IDENTIFY drawing nutriment from the poison
its own fangs had infused. 1t shed its skin
twice year-each spring and autumn-a
new rattle appearing at each shedding,
which explodes the popular notion that
but one rattle comes year.-Appleton's
Journal.