FOUND AT THE ZOO 309 



nearly six feet long, and the charm of them is that 

 they do not yet know all about glass. When we put 

 our hand close to one of them he draws back his head 

 by looping about a yard of his person into a figure-of- 

 eight. It is so evident that by releasing the springs 

 he could dash his fangs even into our face that we 

 hesitate to try him further. The heart comes into the 

 mouth as we and he face one another he a practised 

 poisoner and we but a soft-skinned amateur in every 

 grade of wild life. He, in his certainty that glass is 

 nothing, mesmerises us into the same belief. We draw 

 respectfully away, and he disdainfully uncoils and 

 moves on about his business. 



Another of the Texans is busily rattling. We can 

 see the instrument quivering so rapidly that its out- 

 lines are blurred, and by leaning very near the glass 

 we can hear "the rattling terrors of the vengeful 

 snake." They are but the whirring of a grasshopper. 

 " Why does he rattle ? " asks a little girl of her uncle, 

 and he has the prudence to think well before he 

 answers. Surely the main purpose of the rattle is to 

 lure insect-eating birds within reach. As the bird 

 comes nearer, the tail quivers more, and the grass- 

 hopper seems to the bird more and more real. Then, 

 when the snake is about to strike larger prey, or an 

 enemy such as man, still the tail quivers, and the 

 second man, if not the first, converts the allurement 

 into a warning. Sometimes at this Zoo there is an 

 ally of the rattlesnake that points this theory with 

 convincing force. Instead of a rattle, its tail ends in 

 a white, scaleless point nearly two inches long, which 

 wriggles and crawls just like a white maggot or grub. 

 The grub, like the rattle, is in the middle of the snake's 



