176 



A COLLECTOR'S EXPERIENCES 



to shed his skin again. Prior to this time his future 

 rattle had been represented by a tiny black knob at 

 the tip of his tail. When Rattles was excited he 

 vigorously shook his tail, and the little button became 

 blurred in I'apid motion, but produced no sound. 

 Then, as he j^repared ,to shed his skin, a new joint 

 developed at the base of the button. When Eattles 



-v^^'VU^'J^i^ . 



Fig. 78. — Rattlesnake. 



crawled out of his old clothes he uncovered this new 

 rino:, which had been o^rowine: under the skin ; it soon 

 grew dry and brittle, and the " button," fitting to it 

 loosely, produced a faint, buzzing sound when shaken. 

 From tiny mice, Kattles had graduated to mice of 

 good size, for which young rats were soon substituted. 



