The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-09-20
WAYS OF RATTLESNAKES.
SOME COMMON ERRORS REGARDING
THEIR FIGHTING ABILITIES.

| Mates.
Nobody was ever bitten by rat
! tlesnake, and nobody ever will be,
said man who has studied them.
t"And the reason is the best that could
possibly be. \ rattlesnake can't bite.
1t isn't likely that any creature that
lives and is provided with teeth and
| Jaws has less power of biting. The
snakes jaws are not hinged. They
are attached to each other by an elias
| tic cartilage. Thus the snake has no
leverage whatever in closing one jaw
against the other, and if it attempted
to inflict injury by biting, it couldn't
so much as pierce the skin. The fangs
of rattlesnake are driven into the
flesh by stroke, not bite, as is well
shown by the fact that punctures are
made only by the armament of the
upper jaw. The lower Jaw has moth
| ing to do with the act a man strik
ing boat hook into log is an exact
representation of the manner in which
the rattlesnake bites. Sol whenever
anyone tells you about some one else
being bitten by a rattlesnake, bet him
| it isn't so. You'll win. 1t is an i'm
possibility for rattesnake to bite.
but. although the rattlesnake can't
| bite, If you're fooling around in a
country where he is spending the sum
mer, you want to keep your eye peeled.
And there is one particular thing you
don't want to forget. 1t is common
and widespread fallacy that a rattle
snake is entirely harmless so long as
| he is uncoiled. | believed that once,
and found out by startling personal
experience that it WASH so. 1t Is true
that when rattlesnake is stretched at
| full length, with the muscles extended
| to the utmost, he could not strike an
| inch forward, but from that position
he can strike backward his full length,
and with lightning like velocity. One
day | dropped big stone on the head
of big RATHER that lay in this posi-
ton, crushing the head, the stone
lying partly on the head. After gaz-
ing for some time at the qulvering
reptile, SO suddenly taken from life, |
stopped down to remove the rattles. l
had no sooner touched his tail than
his mutilated head flew back, and al
most grazing my cheek, struck the
sleeve of my coat just below the the
shoulder, where both fangs were bur
led, pulling out of the jaw and remain
ing in the sleeve as the snake fell back
to the ground. They had not missed
my cheek by more than halr $
breadth. With precautron have
made that test of rattlesnake's ca
pacity of striking in that way many
times since then, and the snake always
struck. The instinct is so strong In
this reptile that | have known rat
tier, two hours after its head was sew
cred from its body, to strike back
fiercely with its bleeding stump the
instant its tail was touched.
There is at least one case on record
where this belief that a rattlesnake
couldn't strike until it was in coil re
suited fatally. The man was working
in his garden, when he discovered a
rattlesnake lying with only its rattles
and two or three inches of its tail pro
jecting from under the bottom rail of
the fence on the side next to him, the
rest of the snake being on the other
side. The man, being unable to give
the snake blow that would Kill 1t
while it was in that position, thought
he would seize its rattles and pull 1t
quickly out into full view and Kill 1t
with his hoe. He crcpt up and seized
the rattles, but had no sooner touched
them than the rattlesnake doubled
back over the rail and sank its eangs
in the hand that held it's tail. The
man killed the snake and hurried to
the house, wehre he died in short
time.
"But the typical position OF the rat
tlesnake when intent on deadly assault
is the coil. This is not always sym
metrical spiral, but the body is massed
in more or less regular folds, the
muscles are contracted, and the reptile
is literally an animate set SPRING
From this position the RATHER can
spring from one half to two-thlrds OF
his length. Before the stroke the
mouth is opened wide, the fangs fall
ing down from their sockets IN the
upper Jaw and standing firmly in their
positlon. The head is thrust forward,
the half coils below it being straight
ened out to lengthen the neck and to
give power to the strike. There is no
preliminary motion. The stab is made
with abrupt swiftness that defies escape
of the victim. There is but one strike.
The snake passes back into its coil
again with the same swiftnetss that 1t
threw itself out. AS the fangs enter
the flesh the venom is injected. II the
thing struck at is beyond the ratter's
reach, the snake has the power OF
squirting its venom in jets, which IT
can do at distance of four feet or
more. DIR. Weir Mitchell had narrow
IiamnnI-
back RATHER he had in his collection
threw a teaspoonful OF its venom III
this way in the Doctors face, from
distance of four feet 1t struck nm
on the forehead If it had fallen an
inch lower it would have entered his
ewes certainly binding him, and per-
haps killing him. , -.
Sometimes rattlesnake loses its
fangs in the flesh of the object 1t
strikes, but that does only temporary
damage to its deadly armory. There
are plenty of incipient fangs lying, In
the Jaw, only waiting for chance like
that to come forward and be in line
for business. They grow very fast,
and in the course of two or three days
a rattlesnake that has lost its fangs is
refitted with brand -new pair. This
is good thing to remember, for it Is
the popular belief that RATHER is
made harmless by extracting its venom
fangs
The only way to render one of these
REPTILES harmless, besides killing it, is
tn apply red hot iron to the cavities
left by the fangs. This will destroy all
the vitality of these dangerous parts
and new fangs will not come in.
1.-The rattlesnake never pursues ms
prey he waits He will not 60 out o.. OF
his way to attack anything. he VIII
invariably keep on his course II not
cornered or leased. You may step