RATTLESNAKE 



\\C,\ 



RAVEN 



rattle at the end of the tail. This organ vi- 

 brates noisily when the snake is roused to an- 

 ger or fear, and so serves 



ing to an enemy. As the reptile has a very 

 poisonous bite, the warning rattle is a protec- 

 tion to people. These snakes are somewhat 

 sluggish and seem to prefer to be let alone, but 

 when they strike they act with surprising quick- 

 The rattle is a series of hollow rings, or 

 joints, which are loosely joined together, each 

 one fitting over a part of the preceding one. 

 The first, formed at the end of the tail, is the 

 smallest, lor it originally grew over the soft 

 body of the young snake. Each time the skin 



THE RATTLESNAKE 



(a) Head; (b) head, showing open mouth; (c) 

 tail of a snake one year old ; (d) tail of a. snake 

 two years old; (e) the rattle of an adult in its 

 fourth year. The lower illustration is that of a 

 diamond-back rattlesnake. 



is shed, which happens two or three times a 

 year, a new ring is formed, and the joints 

 gradually increase in size as long as the snake 

 grows. Those developed after the reptile is 

 full grown are all of one size. The number of 

 rings does not, therefore, as . is generally be- 

 lieved, represent the number .of years a snake 

 has lived. In the British Museum there is a 

 rattle with twenty-one joints the largest one 

 in the collection. 



Rattlesnakes are thick, heavy snakes, but 

 they are not as a rule over five feet in length. 

 The most common species is found in the 

 United States as far west as Kansas. The body 

 varies in color from tawny to dark brown, and 

 has numerous crossbars of irregular brown spots. 

 A much larger species, the diamond rattlesnake, 



in the Southern states. Specimens eight 

 feet long have been found on the Mangrove 

 Islands of Western Florida. This rattlesnake 

 is so called because its body is covered with 

 black, diamond- 

 shaped blotches 

 edged with yel- 

 low. There are 

 various other 

 species in West- 

 ern United States, 

 Mexico, Central 

 America and 

 South America. 

 Rattlesnakes 



DISSECTED HEAD 

 (a) Poison sac; (b) erect- 



cat rats, mice and iio fMntfs. which fold against 

 other small gnaw- the upper 3aw ' 

 ing animals, and are themselves eaten by pigs, 

 whose tough skin and layers of fat prevent 

 the reptile's bite from being dangerous to them. 

 See SNAKE. 



Consult Ditmar's The Reptile Book; Cope's 

 Crocodilians, Lizards and Snakes of North 

 America. 



RAUCH, rauK, CHRISTIAN DANIEL (1777- 

 1857), a German sculptor of high rank. His 

 great monumental works, especially his master- 

 piece, the magnificent bronze statue of Fred- 

 erick the Great, in Berlin, are thoroughly na- 

 tional in spirit and are characterized by dignity, 

 harmony and beauty of conception and compo- 

 sition. 



Rauch was born at Arolsen, in Waldeck prin- 

 cipality. In his boyhood he served as a sculp- 

 tor's apprentice. In 1797 he became valet to 

 Frederick William III of Prussia, but his love 

 for art soon asserted itself, and through the 

 generosity of a nobleman he was enabled to 

 study at Rome, where he enjoyed the friend- 

 ship of Thonvaldsen and Canova. His first 

 productions of note were Sleeping Endymion 

 and Artemis and a bust of Queen Louise. A 

 monument to this queen in the royal mauso- 

 leum at Charlottenburg, begun by the sculptor 

 in 1818, established his fame. The following 

 year he founded in Berlin a royal atelier of 

 sculpture. His bronze statues of Field-marshal 

 Bliicher and Maximilian of Bavaria, and his 

 busts of Diirer, Goethe and Thorwaldsen arc a 

 few of the many fine examples of his genius. 



RAVEN, ra'v'n, the largest of the members 

 of the crow family, a bird of much intelligence 

 and cunning, known from the remotest times 

 and connected with the history and mythology 

 of many nations. It is the first bird named in 

 the Bible. Noah sent a raven out from the Ark 



