The herald., 1894-01-05
PLAY DEAD.
'cK PRAcsTIcEo BY THE "BLow-
ING vIPERS."

Made Study Of snaksology..
For a long tisne have desired infor-
nation from Others about common
uielx OF the ordinary blowing viper, I"
nr spreadhead fulake (heterodon, IN sew
eral species). have observed that such
animals when Inuch worried or slight
y hurt will iiequently feign death.
This habit has doubtless been often re-
ported befose, bEt / do not recall having
feen definite mepltion of it in print but
'plce. Several anenths ago some one
writing about shakes in daily news
paper alluded to this matter, and gave
'as an explanatory. the offhand statement
That the snake became frightened and
tainted from fekr. y That this is not
|the explanation will, think, appear
from what / h;i15e noted about several
leases that came Hnder my own obserya-
A'tion.
4 Thelfrst time;I ever noticed this be-
Iihavior on the part of a snake was when
II was achild. At that time was one
+ day crossing field. accompanied by an
Y Did negnosman and small dog. The
4 dog foumlsa common black spreadhead,
II land without Actually taking hold of it
began toworryi it by running around
It, swapping at il; and barking. Anxious
4 to save my .f1ien d. the dog-from what
j / supposed was deadly peril, struck
! the snake with athe only weapon quickly
4 available, SIN, III whip carried in my
4 hand. The sns Ike Immediately elected
Z q toad it had recently swallowed, then
appeared to bi te itself in the side, and
promptly turned on its back and stiff
sned. but did not become stretched
straight out, land lay perfectly still.
4 TbertNwas neti even a wiggle in Install
+ when tpinched. Believing, as | then
did. that all snakes were venomous,
supposed this. one had killed himself,
and rer parking that he seemed dead
enough, y 1 was ON the point Of leaving
him. But the old negro said: "Oh,
4 ifoi If ytyu ifssave them when they bite
4 thensslves. !, then their mates come along
and lick Il se bite, and they come to-
So | sn rasgled the snakes head in
wav that 1to amount of licking would
ever heal. The old man evidently
knew by sozne means that snakes
which appes red thus to commit suicide
would recov,tr, and knowing no real ex-
planation of why they should he in
vented one. Therein he followed the
example of iMore eminent men than
himself. Bef ore l again noticed such
action BY a sn;axe had studied zoology
little, and had learned that the spread
head was said to be nonvenomous.
{ Consequently vi zen | next met one and
began to cultivate a closer acquaint-
+ a4ice with him, and he seemed after u
time to kill hims elf, was much sur
prised, and beg an to investigate his
mouth to see if h 9 did not have poison
fangs after all. (de, as they all do, had
turned himself on his back and was lying
rigid in tina. posi- ton. In the course of
nv investigations I turned him over,
= right side up, - again. He was play
A- ing dead SO earnestly that he could not
lie in SO lifelike position, but inlsnedi-
ately turned himself on his baclnagain.
Then of course,I knew that snake
which was too dead to stay in the po-
sition in which I placed him was too
alive to be very badly hurt. / deter
mined to watch him. Accordingly | re-
llAOrcu HILL " a olAlOOtDy etiiNA
then Withdrew to a little distance to
quietly watch Developments In about
y 10 minutes the snake cautiously raised
his head and two or three inches of his
body and looked around. If he saw me,
he failed to recognize me, and in a few
seconds had turned himslef over and
was making off. When l advanced
quickly toward him, he redoubled his
efforts to escape, but was easily cap
tured. He did not, at that time, again
play possum.
Often since then l have watched them
70 through this pretended suicide. Usu-
ally when becoming active again, they
behave like the one just described, but
occasionally when they find themselves
,vertaken as they are making off, they
will again at once feign death. Some
imes while playing dead, if one is
yharply pricked with needle or other
wise acutely stimulated, he will prompt-
ly resume his interest in surrounding
il1ings and either show fight or try to
Escape.
Occasionally when | have spoken to
friends about this matter and they have
hown disposition to regard my state
nents as snake stories, in the popular
ense of that expression, have been
ortunate enough to get hold of a spread
iead and show them what had before
described to them.
1t is usually easy to provoke Heter-
don niger, H. platyrhinus, or Fl. sinus
nto feigning death by striking him
With small twigs or good bunch of
broom straw, OF by a little brisk han
ling. | wish some one else would ex-
mime these snakes with reference to
his habit and report his conclusions. 1
hink fainting from fear' is shown
be wrong by the snakes refusing to
tay in any other position than fiat ION
us back.
Recently while conversing with a
fiend about this matter he suggested
hat perhaps the rattlesnakes, which are
often provoked into biting them
elves and then seeming to die were
llso acting deceptive part in order to
scape. This seems more probable, as
me noted experimenter, DR.. S. Weir
Mitchell, says that the injection of rat
lesnake's Is venom into the snakes own
irculation does not appear to cause