800 



NATl'RAL HISTORY. 



case stands, it would be well for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 

 to Animals to take it up. 



••First, as to the reptiles, it may be observed that they are like other 

 rattlesnakes, — dangerous, venomous creatures; they have no business in 

 the burrows, and are after no good when they do enter. They wriggle into 

 the holes, partly because there is no other place to crawl into on the bare, 

 flat plain, and partly in search of owls' eggs, owlets, and puppies to eat. 

 Next, the owls themselves are simply attracted to the villages of the 

 prairie-dogs as the most convenient places for shelter and nidification, 





Fig. 344. — Copperhead {Ancistrodon contortriz). 



where they find eligible ready-made burrows, and are spared the trouble 

 of digging for themselves." 



Others of the poisonous reptiles of America lack the rattle, and in the 

 tropics the most deadly of these is the celebrated fer-de-lance.- This is 

 a native of Surinam and Brazil, but it has obtained entrance to some of 

 the West India Islands. In Martinique it has become an insufferable nui- 

 sance, or more than a nuisance. It is a quick, aggressive creature, and 

 strikes without any warning. 



In our southern states occurs the water-moccasin and the copperhead, 

 the latter extending north into New England. Both are poisonous, but the 



