Griggs courier., 1893-07-21
RATTLEsNAKEs ARE UGLY.

RATTLEsNAKEs ARE UGLY.
An Old Hunter Relates Some 81 His Exps
riences With the Deadly Reptiles.
1.-THE rattlesnake, like the skunk
said an old rattlesnake hunter, minds
its own business and doesn't interfere
with any other creature, unless it il
molested. In an old wood road one
spring got sight Of a rattlesnalke and
. pheasant near together. The pleas
ant was picking seeds on the ground
and the snakes eyes were glittering al
1t from the center of its coil, so kept
back, expecting TO see the rattler strike
at the bird, in case it came near enough.
1 soon noticed that the pheasant was
crippled, but that it picked all around
the rattlesnake, Us though it didn't see
it, although the snake moved is head
and eyed the bird. When the pheasant
had limped around in front of the
snake it was not more than q quar-.
ter of the snakes length away from
the coil, but the rattler didn't stir,
and the bird continued to feed,
with its tail toward the snake. All of
u sudden q wildcat pounced on the
pheasant from the side of the road, and
just as suddenly the rattler shot out ite
head, struck its fangs in the wildcats
left shoulder, and coiled again. The
wildcat leaped into the air with
scream, the pheasant futtered into the
brush, and the snake struck again Just
as the wildcat came down, hitting it in
the ribs. The wildcat sprang upon
log, and began to bite its side, and the
rattler threw itself into q coil and
glared at it. In a moment tho wildcat
gave cry, jumped down and started
to run around the snake. kissing and
splitting till the rattler struck again,
but failed to reach. 1t coiled once
more. and like q flash the wildcat got
its teeth in the back of it's neck, rem
dering the snake powerless to use its
fangs. and while the rattlcr was writh-
ing the wildcat ripped it's body into
strips with its hind claws. Then the
wildcat got upon the log and began to
lick its shoulder, but in three or four
minutes it tumbled off, had spasm or
two. and stretched out as dead as the
snake was.
while engaged in killing maey hun.
dreds of rattlesnakes for their OIL" the
old hunter added, II have never seen
but one fight between a rattler and a
blacksnake, and that battle ended very
differently from some of the fights my
friends tell about having witnessed be.
tween the same kind of reptiles. The
rattlesnake was stretched out on a
rock, under sumach limb, and us
approached to pin it down, it threw it.
self into a coil and raised it's head
toward the sumach, in the top of which
there was blacksnake. 1 had heard
so much about the ability of the black.
snake to break rattler all up that
backed off in the expectation of seeing
it done with my own eyes. The black.
snake soon dropped its head and about
two feet of its body from the limb di.
rectly over the rattlesnake, where it
remained stationary, the two snakes
cycling one another like gamecoks
ready for battle. In short time
the blaclssnalke let it's head
swing from right to left, and At
that the rattlesnake buzzed q
little, ran out its tongue and moved its
head, SO as to keep track of the black.
snakes movements. While swinging
the blacksnake lowered itself little
further, and when the heads of the two
were about three feet apart the black
snake slid from the tree SO quickly that
l couldn't see how it did it, and in the
next instant the jaws Of the two were
locked and the rattler was pounding
the blaeksnake on the rock SO fast anG
furiously that the blacksnake had nc
chance to coil itself around its antago
mist. 1t was plain that the rattlesnake
had fastened its fangs in the black
snakes under jaw when the blacksnake
tried to seize it by the neck, and that il
had then given the blacksnalke jerk
and flung it out straight. Several times
the blacksnake came within an ace
of coiling around the rattler, bu,
the latter whaled it on the rock
till it was completely disabl wher
it loosed it's hold and struck the
blacksnake twice in the side. Then the
rattlesnake coiled and watched the
writings of the blacksnake till it died
I wanted the blacksnake to kill the rat
tier, but as it failed to do so killed il
myself.
'"The most interesting snake fight
ever saw was between two male rattle
snakes. They came together from op
posite directions on rock and immedi
ately began to rattle violently an6
challenge one another to fight. WheI
they had got within fifteen or twenty
inches of one another their eyes flashed
and they stopped. In a twinkling they
coiled and at one another they struck
like prize-fighters or game cock, coiling
and hitting each other in the neck and