The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-06-14

':Is seems preposterous thing to say,
but snake that enjoys making its din
ner on another snake won't miss its meal
because the snake it has set out to dine
on is good deal bigger than itself" said
naturalist. cat least kingsnake
won't. Neither will a blacksDake; but
as matter of fact, the kingsnake is only
a species of blacksnake. Nothing in the
snake line suits this family of ophidians
better than the most terrible of reptiles,
the rattlesnake. Squirrels, frogs, rabbits,
birds, and other fat, juicy, edible things
of the animal Kingdom that human epic
| ures delight in are particularly choice to
the kingsnake and its cousin, thu black
snake, but either of these discriminating
serpents will give the squirrel, the frog,
| the rabbit or the bird the go by if it
scents a rattlesnake in the air. And if
there is rattlesnake anywhere within
ten acre lot, where one of these creeping
epicures is looking out for something to
eat, it will know it at once and proceed
to gather it in.
II had once a striking proof of the
pugnacity and wonderful capacity of a
kingsnake in dealing with a rattler and
also of the remarkable tenacity of rat
tier under the most disadvantageous cir
cumstances. Naturally cae would think
that the rattlesnake, armed as it is with
it's deadly poison and apt means to use
it efectually, would be the last thing to
bs attacked by snake entirely harmless
in that respect; and if attacked by one
of that kind it would make short work of
such preposterous .asssilant. But the
fact is that venomous snakes stand in
mortal terror of non venomous ones. A
rattler, loaded with enough poison to
kill bear, will turn and fly in terror if
it should meet an Insignificant garter
snake in its path. Venomous snakes
never fight among themselves, but non.
yenomous snakes are their mortal enc
mies-none more 40 than the blacksnake.
Usually king snake will engage q rat
tier and make short work of it,. five min
utes being sufficient to enable the
former to crush his venomous victim TO
death.
"But on the particular occasion refer
to, the fight between kingsnake and a
rattler it had set out to gather in lasted
eleven hours. I wsu spending q season With
q friend of mine on the Texas border, and
one day as I was strolliug over the prai.
rie came upon two snakes rolling and
tumbling about in the grass, in deadly
combat. soon discovered that the COM
batants were kiDgsnske and rattle
snake.Their movements we're so rapid that
It was some time before I could determine
just what the prospects were for either
one or the other, but at last the round
came to an end and the combatants rest
ed. Then rsaw that the kiugsnake had
it's jaws fastened in the rattlesnake's
neck, or rather ap inch or two below the
neck, and I knew from the nature and
positions of the two reptiles that the
kipgsnake had been trying his lest to
encircle thereafter in his constructing
folds, while the rattler bad been
struggling just as desperately to prevent
it..
sThe secret of the fearlessness and bold
agressiyeness with which blacksnake
or kipgsnake attacks rattler, although
one stroke of the rattler's fangs would be
death to it, as its superior agility and
stratgetic genius. The rattler. like sill
venomous snakes, is sluggish in its
movements while uucoiled, and depends
entirely on the lightnirg-like tbruss of
its head and portion of its body and
the deadly plunge of its fangs, when it
is coiled for action. The blscksnake
and the kingsnake draw this fire from
the rattler, so to speak, by their stratget'
ic movements close to the deadly ser
pent, but out of his reach, and then dart
upon it like dash before it could get
itself in shape to defend itself again.
They seize the rattlesnake by the neck
as close to the head as they can, and
thus prevent it from using its fangs upon
them. The rattlesnake has no constric.
tive powers. The blacksnakes are gen.
uine constructors, being of the same fam.
lily as the boas and anacondas. Having
spiked the rattler's guns, they get him
within their powerful folds and that is
the end of him.
"Now, owing to some miscalculstion 10
his aim the kipgsnake that had tackled
the ratiler on the occasion / am speak
ing about, had seized his victim an inch
or two further back of the head than he
should have done, and when they re-
sumed their battle after the rest they
took soon after I came upon them, saw
that the kingsnake was aware of this
fact. Whether he feared that this mis-
calculation was likely to give the rattler
q chaoce to reach his head back and use
his fangs or not I don't know, but l
could see that the kingsnake's attention
was divided between watching for that
possibility and his endeavors to get his
fatal folds around the rattlesnake and
end the perilous contest. The rattler
seemed to recognize the fact that be had
some kind of an advantage, and be man.
aged, with the sense of wrestler, to
wriggle and twist in such way that be
defeated the kingsuake in his eff9rts. l
had noticed, while the snakes we're rest
ing, that the rattler was nearly two feet
longer than the kiuganake, aud, know
ing that the latter had attacked the for