2 90 : SNAKES, 



in three days killed 1104 rattlesnakes on an eastern slope of 

 Tongue mountain. 



Many hairbreadth escapes during these adventures form 

 the subjects of exciting stories in the domestic annals of 

 American settlers, but are becoming more and more 

 histories of the past In many localities where formerly 

 rattlesnakes swarmed, they have almost totally disappeared 

 or have become very rare. Probably with their friends the 

 Indians, they will in time become wholly extinct. 



New species have, however, been discovered by the 

 explorers of the new Western States and in Tropical America, 

 where, in the sparsely-settled districts, they still come into 

 houses as of yore, and where the rattlesnake campaign is still 

 an annual sport for the venturesome pioneers. In 1872, two 

 thousand of the species Crotaliis confliieJitiis were killed in the 

 Yellowstone Region. 



One other question in the history of the rattlesnake — 

 'Does it swallow its young in times of danger?' or more 

 correctly speaking, * Does it receive its young into its 

 oesophagus as a place of safety.'*' — is considered in chap, 

 xxvii. 



Other discussions of modern times, both in assemblies of 

 zoologists and through printed correspondence, have been on 

 the rattle, when and why vibrated, how affected by damp, 

 etc., all claiming a place in rattlesnake history, but con- 

 sidered elsewhere in this work. A whole volume might be 

 written on this rattling tail, evolved out of the scant materials 

 of the sixteenth century into the prolific matter of the 

 nineteenth. You can scarcely take up one of the many 

 scientific journals of the United States, in which zoology forms 



