The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-10-04
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THE RATTLESNAKE.
COMMON ERRORS REGARDING L.
FIGHTING ABILITIES.

Doesn't Have to Coil BEFORE Striking ;>2,.
Kills by a Blow-Quickly Replaces Io>,
Fangs-He Will Not Go Out of His Way
to Attack Anything.
Nobody was ever bitten by rattle,
snake, and nobody ever will be-" said
man who has studied them. "And the
reason is the best that could possibly be.
A rattlesnake can't bite. 1t isn't likely
that any creature that lives and is pro.
vided with teeth and jaws has less pow
er of biting The snakes jaws are not
hinged. They are attached to each other
by an elastic cartilage. Thus the snake
has no leverage whatever in closing one
jaw against the other, and if it attempt
ed to in1ict 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 we'll
shown by the fact that punctures are
made only by the armament of the up
per jaw. The lower jaw has nothing to
do with the act. A man striking boat
hook into log is an exact representa-
ton of the manner in which the rattle
snake bites. So whenever any one tells
you about some one else being bitten by
rattlesnake bet him it ism It So You'll
win. 1t is an impossibility for rattle
snake to bite.
''But although the rattlesnake can't
bite, if you're fooling around in a coun-
try where he is spending the summer,
you want to keep your eye peeled. And
there is one particular thing you don't
want to forget. 1t is a common and
widespread fallacy that a rattlesnake is
entirely harmless so long as he is IN
coiled. believed that once and found
out by a startling personal experience
that it wasn't so. 1t is true that when
a 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
ightninglike velocity. One day I drop
ped big stone Oh the head of a big
RATHER that lay i'll this position, crush
ing the head, the stone lying partly on
the head. After gazing for some time
taken from life, I stopped down to re-
move his rattles. 1 had no sooner
touched his tail than his mutilated head
few back, and almost grazing my
cheek struck the sleeve of my coat just
below the shoulder, where both fangs
were buried, pulling out of the jaw and
remaining in the sleeve as the snake
oil hon TO fl,n ko
missed my cheek by more than hair S
breadth. With precaution have made
that test of rattlesnake's capacity 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 a RATHER two hours after
its head was severed from it's body to
strike back fercely with it's bleeding
stump the instant its tail was touched
But the typical position Of the rat
tlesnake when intent on deadly assault
is the coil. This is not always SYM
metrical spiral, butsthe body is massed
in more or less regular folds, the mus
cles are contracted, and the reptile is
literally an animate set spring. From
this position the RATHER can spring from
one-half to two-thirds of his length.
Before the stroke the mouth is opened
wide, the fangs falling down from their
sockets in the upper jaw, and standing
firmly in their POSITION. The head is
thrust forward, the. half coils below it
being Strengthened cut Ito 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