118 IN THE AMERICAN DESERT 



from the tone of her voice they knew quite well that an 

 enemy must be at hand. 



At first nothing was to be seen that would explain the 

 bird's alarm, but on glancing from the trees to the ground, 

 they saw a thin yellow body moving noiselessly through 

 the grass. Every now and then it stopped, raised its 

 head, and touched the dry leaves with its tongue, and in 

 so doing it stretched itself out, showing its full length, 

 which was over six feet. At the end of its tail was a 

 loose row of horny substances, which made a horrid 

 sound when shaken, and gave the creature its name of 

 ' rattle -snake.' 



Now, of course, no snake in the world could catch a 

 bird' if the bird chose to fly away, and the rattle-snake 

 least of all, as it cannot climb trees. But snakes, as 

 everybody knows, have a deadly power of fascination, 

 and the people who were looking on were anxious to see 

 whether the blue -jay would be able to resist the charm, 

 or whether she would fall a victim to his spell. 



By this time the snake had reached the foot of a big 

 magnolia, and after sniffing all round the tree, coiled 

 itself up in a great yellow heap, close to the stem, paying 

 no heed to the foolish blue-jay, who had done her best to 

 bring about her own death by the silly noise she was 

 making. However, seeing at last that the snake was pay- 

 ing no attention to her, but only getting ready for a nap, 

 the bird plucked up courage, and flew away to its nest. 



A moment after, the rattle-snake made a slight move- 

 ment, which proved he was not asleep after all. What 

 was he waiting for ? A squirrel most likely, for squirrels 

 are the dinner which rattle-snakes like the best. Yes, 

 sure enough, high up in the tree there was a hole, and 

 along the grass was a tiny trail leading straight to the 

 magnolia, and from certain marks on the bark, it was 

 quite plain that the squirrels came and went that way. 

 Now it was close to this trail that the snake had taken up 

 his station. 



