Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-07
ABOUT THE RATTLEsNAKE.
What Happens When he Means Mis-.
chief-Ready for Strike.

Or. 8. ". Mitchell In the Century.
Let rs observe what happens when the rat
tlesnake means mischief. He throws himself
into spiral, and about one-third of his length.
carrying the head rises from the coil and
stands upright. The attitude is fine and war
like, and artists who attempt to portray it
always fail. He does not pursue-he waits
| Little animals he scorns unless he is hungry,
so that the mouse or the toad he leaves for
days unnoticed in his cage. Larger or noisy
creatures alarm him. Then his head and neck
are thrown far back, his mouth is opened very
wide, the fang held firmly erect, and with an
abrupt swiftness for which his ordinary
motions prepare one but little, he strikes
once and is back on guard again, vigilant
and brave. The blow is q stab and is given by
throwing the head forward, while the half coils
below it are Strengthened out to lengthen the
neck and give power to the motions which
drive the fangs into the opponents flesh As
they enter the temporal muscle closes the lower
jaw on the part struck and thus forces the
sharp fang deeper in. 1t is thrust aided by
bite. At this moment the poison duct is opened
by the relaxation of the muscle which surrounds
1t and the same muscle which shuts the Jaw
ssqueezes the gland and drives its venom
through the duct and hollow fang into the bit
ten part. In SO complicated a series of acts
there Ii often failure. The tooth strikes on
tough skin and doubles back or fails to enter
or the serpent misjudges distance and falls
snort and may squirt the venom or
feet in the air, doing no harm. l had q
curious experience of this kind, in which
snake 8 feet 6 inches long threw a
tea spoonful or more of poison athwart my
for ehead. 1t missed my eyes by an inch or
was the grimmest of all. An inch lower would
have cost me my sight and probably my life.
snake will turn and strike from any posture,
but the coil is the attitude always assumed
when possible. The coil acts an anchor and
enables the animal to shake its fangs loose
from the wound. A snake can rarely strike
beyond half its length. If both fangs enter
the hurt Is doubly dangerous. because the dose
OF venom Is doubled At times fang is left in
the flesh, but this does not trouble the serpent's
powers as poisoner, since nllmberless fangs lie
ready to become firmly fixed in its place. and
both fangs are never lost together The ner-
vous mechanism which controls the act of
striking seems to be in the spinal cord for if we
cut on a snakes head and then pinch its tail
the stump of the neck returns and with
some accuracy hits the hand Of the expert
menter-if he has the nerve to hold on. Few
men have. / have not A little Irishman who
took care of my laboratory astonished me by
coolly sustaining this test He did it by clos
ing his eyes and SO shutting out for a moment
the too suggestive view Of the returning stump
Snakes have always seemed to me averse to
striking, and they have been on the whole much
maligned. Any cool, quiet person, moving
slowly: and steadily, may pick up and handle
gently most venomous serpents. I fancy. how
ever; that the vipers and the copperheads are
uncertain pets. Mr.. Thompson, the snake
keeper at the Philadelphia geological handles
his serpents with impunity; but one day,
having dropped some little moccasins a
few days old down his sleeve while he
carried their mamma in his hand,
one of the babies bit him and made an ugly
wound. At present the snake staff is used to
handle snakes. / saw one October in Tangiers
what had long desired to observe-a snake
charmer. Most of his snakes were harmless,
but he refused, with well-acted horror, to per-
NIT me to take hold of them. He had also two
large brown vipers. These he handled with
care, but saw at once that they were kept ex-
hausted of their venom by having been daily
leased into biting on a bundle of rags tied to a
stick. They were too tired to be dangerous.
have often seen snakes in this state. After
three four fruitless acts of instructive use of
their venom they give up and seem to become
indifferent to approaches and even to rough
handling.