NOTES FROM THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 573 



' Look at that rat ! ' exclaimed a lady to her friend, when 

 the keeper gave the rattlesnake a good-sized guinea-pig. 



' I think it must be a rabbit ; it is too big for a rat,' 

 returned the friend. 



Before they could decide this zoological question, it lay 

 dead. The rattlesnake struck it and left it. It gave one 

 gasp, fell over, and in half a minute was dead. Another day 

 a guinea-pig was six minutes dying, but on this occasion the 

 rattlesnake had expended some of its venom in angrily 

 striking the iron rod with which the keeper was moving 

 something in the cage. When the guinea-pig seemed to be 

 dead, the Crotalus, after eyeing and smelling it all over, that 

 is, investigating it with its tongue as if to be assured, was 

 about to take it, when the little animal had one slight spasm 

 more, and the snake darted back its head and rapidly retreated. 

 Watching them as I have done for years, I am still undecided 

 whether excessive timidity or their low order of intelligence 

 is paramount in the rattlesnakes. They are so slow and 

 sluggish of movement, that those accustomed to them hold 

 them in tolerable contempt. I have seen Holland watch his 

 opportunity, open the cage, and put his hand in to snatch 

 away a guinea-pig to give to another snake if the Crotalus 

 did not want It. 



' They always coil before striking,' is often said. They 

 certainly take time to think about an attack and to make 

 ready by having plenty of coils — slack rope, as it were — at 

 their command, in order to reach their aim, the 'always 

 colling ' not truly meaning that they wind themselves round 

 and round as a sailor coils a rope, with their head In the 

 middle. The 'coiling' has been thus described by persons 



