2604 



SCALED REPTILES 



the sake of warmth, the serpents passed the winter in a state of more or less com- 

 plete torpor, until the returning warmth of spring once more started them to spread 

 over the country. When rattle snakes were abundant, annual or biennal hunts 

 used to take place at these dens; the fat of the slaughtered reptiles being used as a 

 valuable supply of oil. Catlin tells us how, when a boy, he once assisted at one of 

 these hunts at a place known as Rattlesnake Den, whence the snakes used to come 

 forth on to a certain ledge of rock in swarms. At one time, he says, there was a 

 knot of them " like a huge mat wound and twisted and interlocked together, with 

 all their heads like scores of hydras standing up from the mass," into which he 

 fired with a shotgun. Between five hundred and six hundred were killed with 



DIAMOND AND SOUTH AMERICAN RATTLESNAKES. 



(One-tenth natural size.) 



clubs and other weapons, but hundreds more escaped to the den. Fortunately one 

 large one was taken alive, and was made the means of destroying the rest, a powder 

 horn with a slow fuse being applied to its tail, and the reptile allowed to crawl back 

 to the cave, where a loud explosion soon told the tale of the destruction that had 

 taken place. 



The most interesting point in connection with rattlesnakes is the use to which 

 the appendage from which they derive their name is put, for use it must surely 

 have. The old view was that it was intended to warn creatures preyed on by these 

 reptiles of the approach of their enemy; but, in regard to this supposition, Darwin 

 well observes that " I would almost as soon believe that the cat curls the end of its 



