The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1883-08-11
The Rattlesnake.

10 be heard in every State, of ''denS,"
where they writhe in countless numbers
and dreadful intimacy, have some
foundation. De Kay cites an instance
where two men, in Warren County,
n. y, about 1910, slaughtered LOO
rattlesnakes in three days on the eastern
side of Tongue Mountain. In 1877
farmer killed seventy-siX massasaugas in
a cranberry marsh of Crawford County,
Ohio, where are still harbored many
Serpents disappearing elsewhere. Some
Swamps and canebrakes in the far south
swarm with the dreaded cottonmouth,
and local species occur in thousands on
parts of the plains and Rocky Noun
tains, particularly in the tufa craters of
the nearest approach to the "den of
the sensational picture is an island in
Pyramid lake, Nevada, where during
the warm months sit is absolutely dan
gerous to walk about those parts of the
island where they are colonized. p"
This animal is easily killed or dis
abled, however, and has in man an i'm
placable enemy not only directly but in
many indirect ways; yet there are few
localities favorable to him where he has
been exterminated. You can find rat
tlesnakes in plenty, for example, within
five miles of the center of New Haven.
1t is doubtful if any of the several
species will ever suffer extinction.
Scales being undistensible and never
falling out TO be replaced, like hair and
feathers with which they have no
homology), serpents get room for
growth and renew their coats periodic
ally by sloughing off the entire skin,
underneath which new external skin
has formed and separated itself from
the now faded and husky cuticule. This
process occurs during August in the
adult, two or three changes happening
in single summer with youngsters,
who outgrow their vestments very
speedily. 1t is a popular idea that this
midsummer sloughing occupies con-
siderable period, during which the SER
penis are harmless, because blind. 1t
is quite supposable that this might be
so, since the outer layer of the cornea of
the eye peels off with the slough, and
during few preceding days the eye has
dull and filmy appearance. But cap
tive snakes, given active mice at this
time, attack them without hesitation or
missing. After the mott the eye CLEANS
bright and cold like a jewel, but with a
| sullen, ferocous and relentless express
sion, for it is overhung by the bony
penthouse of the broad, strong superior
table bones that give fulcrum for the
powerful muscles of the jaws. This
cruel eye and its fixed stare introduces
the once veXing question of fascination;
but before discussing it, some account of
the food and feeding habits of our sub
ject will be we'll
The disposition of the whole family is
sluggish and opposed to any active
movement and even in taking its prey,
beyond the one lighting swift blow that
smites it down-so startling contrast
to the ordinary lethargy! The mocassin,
to be sure, is somewhat an exception,
since he is good swimmer and chases
in their element frogs, water snakes,
tadpoles, and the less agile fishes, like
the catfish.
The most rapid exertions of rattle
snakes are aroused in fleeing from dan
ger; yet, when doing their best on open
ground, their pace can easily be equaled
by child, without running, as | have
seen on the plains, so that a blacksnake
or Eutania, could not only overtake,
but circle round and round them. TheiI
plan in food-getting, then, is not tC
pursue their prey, but to lie in wait foI
it and strike before their presence is
suspected. Protected by his colors, that
assimilate him to the haunts he most
frequents, whether woods or rocks, as
in the eastern crotall, or the barren up
lands chosen by the far western species
the shaded morasses threaded by the
dark-skinned massasaugas; the lush
meadows where the copperhead turks
the stream-bank or rice-ridge where the
cottonmouth plunges into the water; OF
the yellow weeds under whose notified
shadows the little ground rattleR be.
come visible-hidden, and motionless
for hours together in one or another OF
these resorts, the crotalus coils in patient
vigilance. Though aware of the pas
senger's presence, he either lies quiet
o. glides away to a more retired spot. y
His course is that of the darkey who
was urged to follow one into the thicket
and kill il: "Massa, | nebber bodders
muffin wot don't bodder me; makes
dat a ruler Here, again, nevertheless
an exception must be noted for the cop
perhead, and more especially for the
moccasin-vicious reptiles, asking littl,
proyocation before inflicting their dead
ly wound. Holbrook says the moccasir
attacks everything that comes within
its reach, erecting its head and opening
its mouth for some seconds before j
bites" All other snakes put in a Gag,
with it show the keenest terror. N,
species of crotalus, however, will follow
the object of its rage as do some of tn
non-venomous serpents
Such are facts respecting the food
getting of the rattlesnakes, while thos
of other serpents would furnish al
/ equally prosaic explanations; yet tn
notion that the small, bead-like eye, an,
tongue darting forked fame from blac
lips, exerted charm or fascination
upon smaller animals, Turing ther
within reach of the fatal stroke, is a
old as the tabled basilisk-older, indeed
for to it, no doubt, the very image of tn
basilisk owes its origin. Travelin
westward, it came to America with til
earliest bookmakers, and was at one
attached to our subject and to the blacl
snake. birds have been seen to dro
into its mouth wrote Penant; ''squi