The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-10-04
RATTLEsNAKEs BOTHER FEW.
MIR. Ditmars Got Record of Only One
Fatal Case on His Trips.

RAYMOND L. Ditmars, curator of rep
tiles of the New York Geological Gar
den, who is said to know more about
the creatures than any other expert,
while saying that there are many rat
tlesnakes in this country, notably in New
York and Pennsylvania, declares that
there are very few records of injury
from them. In n recent investigation.
where he questioned that residents of
districts where the snakes were known
20 be numerous, he heard of only one
serious accident. and that was TO an
intoxicated man who invited disaster.
Rattlesnake dens are raided with inn
punity by Mr.. Ditmars and his assistants,
and many of the snakes are caught. A
dem about 10 miles from New York,
which was raided last spring, yielded
many ra5tlesnakes and copperheads,
blacksnakes and serpents of other varie-
ties. Many of them were sent to the
Antwerp Geological Garden in Belgium.
A rattlesnake's den is not a den in the
general acceptance of the term-a cave
sach as a large animal would occupy.
One den in the BerkShireS is on the
southern side of a hill, where there
seems to have been an upheaval of large
rocks with big spaces and crevices be-
tween them. The sun throws its rays
there winter and summer. and it is
thought that there are hot springs be-
meath. 1t is underneath these rocks
on the last warm days in the fall they
may be seeen summing themselves outside.
on the doorsteps of their home, and
after long sleep they come out again
in the spring for a few days and then,
thoroughly warmed and awakened, start
off in pairs to cover the country and
find food. Where they go it is diff
ficult to tell. for Mr.. Ditmars says that,
covering the country where they are liable
to be, it is very rare to find one.
In discovering dens where the snakes
hibernate, year after year, on collecting
trips. the curator and his aids have made
every effort to learn of cases of people
who have been injured by them. After
basking for few days in the sun at
their dens in the spring, small number,
| il is found will stray down into the
meadows and farm lands and are seen
and killed Occasional specimens are
found in the barrens and open spots
| among low huckleberry bushes, but this
is small proportion of the large num-
bers that emerge from the dens most of
which go up into the rocky portions OF
| the mountains and are never seen by
human beings.
At the base of a great snake den which
| Mr.. Ditmars visited last spring, there
| is a long stretch of farm land which
| has belonged for many generations, since
| Immediately following the American
| Revolution, in one family. The present
members of this family, intelligent and
| knowing we'll the history of the region,
say that they have never heard of an
accident from a rattlesnake in their
locality or in the surrounding mountains
/ At the base of another mountain and
below ledge where forty-four rattlers
| had been captured within few hours
and where as many more had escaped
in the little town of few hundred in
habitants, there was only one record OF
I a "a he "a
1t was a case of invited injury.
| laboring man, an alien, who was intoxi
Gated, was pulling down stone wal
and a snake was heard to sound 1T
warning. The mans companion warned
him to keep his hands away from tn,
stones, but he was in a reckless mood
| Snakes were nothing to him. he said, ant
he finally put his hands directly on tn,
snake and then refused to 90 to the dOcto
to be treated.-New York Times.
The Chicago stockyards, which ar