44 



GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



joints in the rattle is entirely erroneous, as many as 

 four of the rings having been known to develop in a 

 single year. Concerning this point Dr. L. Stejneger, 



the leading American 

 authority on poisonous 

 snakes, after mention- 

 ing the difficulty in 

 overcoming the fallacy 

 that " each ring on a 

 rattle-snake represents 

 a year of its life," says : 

 " It ought not to be dif- 

 ficult to make people 

 understand that the 

 rattle is a delicate in- 

 strument which easily 

 breaks; tfyat old and huge rattlers are often found 

 with but one or a few rings; that a variable number 

 of joints are added each year, and that the production 

 of a ring can be accomplished in the course of every 

 two or three months." 



In what mariner has so unique an organ as the rat- 

 tle developed ? For what purpose is it used by the 



Fig. 11 Head of Banded Rattle-snake, 

 shown from top and side. (After Baird.) 



g f e d c b a 

 Fig. 12 Separate joints of rattle of Banded Rattle-snake, 

 a, button; h, basal joint. 



snake? These are questions which have been much 

 discussed but are, as yet, unsolved. Some have likened 

 the sound produced by the rattle to that made by the 



