V 

 THE RATTLESNAKE 



America has the privilege of possessing a variety of 

 interesting animals found nowhere else in the whole earth, 

 such as many kinds of apes, opossums, and numerous birds; 

 above all, its lovely humming birds, the exclusive possession 

 of which every other quarter of the world may well envy. 

 But it also possesses exclusively some creatures, the 

 presence of which will not excite envy in other geographical 

 regions. Among these are the rattlesnakes, which, in their 

 various varieties, range from Southern Canada down to 

 Patagonia. But, deadly and dreadful as they are, they 

 are creatures nevertheless full of interest for persons who 

 love the study of Nature, her works and ways among 

 living things. The rattlesnake has an interest for a 

 variety of reasons — (i) on its own account, (2) as one of 

 a small group of poisonous serpents, which includes also 

 forms which are not rattlesnakes, (3) on account of the 

 relation in which it stands to all other snakes, and (4) as 

 being a snake at all ; for every snake is a very remark- 

 able animal, and probably many of my readers do not 

 know what a snake really is. If so, then they necessarily 

 must have but a very imperfect comprehension of the 

 deadly American reptile. To be able in a satisfactoiy 

 manner to answer the question, "What is a rattle- 

 snake ? " we must know something definite as to what 

 any snake is, as compared with all creatures which are 



