The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-07-16

stuihpS, VI LII any OIner COnVenlenG
clearinghouse he can find.
He is great climber, and has an in
satiable appetite for birds. The
meadow-lar who builds her nest in the
punches of sagebrush near the ground,
finds her greatest enemy in the bull
snake.
One day, at our fort nine-foot bull
snake was caught climbing the trellis
OF an old, abandoned log cabin, bound
on foraging expedition after some
swallows that had built their nests
under the caves of the cabin. He was
killed by asoldicr.
The bull-snake grows to great length,
and is beautifully marked with black,
blue and steel-gray spots. He is per-
fcctly harmless, without poison of any
kind, and is always the deadly enemy
of the dreaded rattlesnake. For this
reason farmers and ranchmen living in
the North will never allow bull-snako
to be killed if they can preventit
What the bull-snake is to tho North
the king snake is to the South. The
latter is indeed beautiful reptile. He
is marked with a succession of rings of
lovely rainbow colors, has length sell
dom more than three feet, and is quite
harmless He never bites human be-
ing, and is in truth the worst and most
deadly enemy the rattlesnake has on
the continent.
There seems to be eternal enmity be-
tween the king and the ratt1esnake
and Notwithstanding the poison glands
of the latter, in contest the former is
always victorious
For this reason soldiers and scouting
parties camping out in Texas will never
kill king-snake. He keeps the deadly
reptile away from the camp.
The power of the rattlcsnake lies il
the poison he carries. The king
snakes only weapon of offense or de
fense is his wonderful constructing
qualities, or, to make it palmer, his tor
rible power of squeezing. If he once
attacks any thing, he wraps himsel
instantaneously around tho object, ant
proceeds to squeeze unrelentingly
never letting go until one or the othe
gives out
The way he attacks his common en-
envy is as follows;
, When rattlesnake sees q king-snak
he quickly throws himself into a col
and prepares for war. He knows ther
is no getting out of u fight should
king-snake once SEQ him. The latte
begins circling around tho rattlesnalse
going faster and faster, until he look
like bright crimson streak in q circl
on the ground.
The rattlesnako tries to follow thes
rapid motions as best he can, but some
how seems to get dazed or dizzy. Whe
his head is twisted so far around tina
he can not recover quickly, like a flas
the king-snake darts in upon him
s scizes tho RATHER back of the neck, on
of reach of his fangs, and wraps hi
) coils like lightning around his victim
Tighter and tighter grow the band!
until it ends in the life being fairl
! crushed out of the rattlesnake.
was walking over the prairie a fe'
} days ago, and found a rattlesnake an
| king-snake who had been in fierce CON
| bat The end, however, had abor
come, for the former was as dead as
, stone, and the latter had not suflicieI
| life left in him to unloosen his coil
after vanquishing his adversary.
t The rattlesnake was nearly twice &
, large as his small but powerful enem.
) l picked them up as found them, an
, have the pair preserved in alcohol
5 Lieutenant J. M. T. Particle, in Golde
| DAYS