THORNS ON THE ROSE 77 



order to study its habits; but by some curious twist of 

 his notes or his memory, or led astray by the record 

 made of the rattling habit, the species became confused 

 in his published account. His error was gross and he 

 paid dearly for it, but it certainly does not prove him to 

 be the king of nature fakirs. 



Audubon's critics were probably right in affirming 

 that the rattlesnake never ascends trees for the purpose 

 of destroying birds, but some overshot the mark by deny- 

 ing that the reptile was able to climb at all. Nor could 

 it have been said with greater justice that the 

 brilliant but sluggish coral snake (Elaps fulvius) , which 

 Audubon had also placed in a tree, 9 really never aspires 

 to this distinction. When the snake controversy was 

 waxing warm in America, a number of Audubon's 

 friends, including Colonel John J. Abert 10 and Richard 

 C. Taylor, 11 investigated the question and proved that 

 the rattlesnake was a ready climber at certain times 

 of the year and under certain conditions, a fact which 

 is now better known. Mr. Taylor's party in the course 

 of explorations in the Alleghanies killed forty-one large 

 rattlesnakes during the month of August on a single 

 ridge bordering the Lycoming Valley, and in rendering 

 his report, this geologist said: "I have repeatedly en- 

 deavored to verify Mr. Audubon's account of the rattle- 

 snake ascending trees, which has been confirmed." 



We have already referred to Audubon's meeting 

 with Thomas Cooper at Columbia, South Carolina, in 

 October, 1833. This versatile man, sometime English 

 lawyer, revolutionist in France, friend of Priestley, 

 judge in the Court of Common Pleas of Pennsylvania, 



9 See Plate lii, of the Chuck-wilPs-widow. 



10 See Vol. II, p. 3; and Bibliography, No. 107. 



11 An English geologist, who made a survey of the bituminous coal- 

 deposits of the Alleghany mountains in 1834. See Bibliography, No. 129. 



