19231 POPE, RATTLESNAKE FACTS AND FALLACIES 133 



off a short time after examination, when the reptile became angry 

 and rattled for about an hour.^^ 



"Holbrook states that Mr. Peale, of the Philadelphia Museum, 

 kept a living female rattlesnake for fourteen years. She had eleven 

 rattles when she came into his possession. Several were lost annually 

 and new ones formed. When she died, there were still eleven. Dur- 

 ing this period the snake had grown four inches in length. "^^ 



Food and climatic conditions apparently control the shedding 

 process and as these conditions vary much in different sections of the 

 country the computation of the age of a rattlesnake by the number of 

 segments of its rattle is most unreliable. This is especially true of 

 specimens in captivity where the rate of growth is not entirely normal. 



The purpose of the rattle, seems to be much disputed. It is gen- 

 erally known that many snakes, both venomous and innocuous, 

 vibrate the tail when greatly angered. Cope says, "The violent 

 vibrations into which most snakes throw their tails when excited, has 

 determined nutritive processes to its extremity and produced the ex- 

 cessive growth. "^'^ Ditmars says, "The natural use of the rattle re- 

 mains unknown. To presume that the snake is provided with this 

 appendage to warn enemies away from its formidable fangs, is to fall 

 in line of very bold theory. Nature has no apologies to make for the 

 distribution and existence of Her creatures whether innocent or dan- 

 gerous, and She is not lavish in placing danger signals to guard the 

 unwary. "'^^ 



Another eminent authority on reptiles, during a lecture delivered 

 at an eastern university in 1923, infers that the rattle was derived 

 through the course of a long period of evolutionary development 

 purely as a protective measure to the snake itself, against the ponder- 

 ous American bison or buffalo that, in the early history of this country, 

 ranged extensively over the haunts of the rattlesnake and probably 

 occasioned the snake considerable danger from its sharp hoofs. Al- 

 though the bison had found through experience that the bite of the 

 snake was rarely fatal to it, nevertheless it paid to heed a warning 

 and the snake in turn found itself to be more unmolested. The rattle 

 could not have been evolved on account of protection against man, the 

 snake's principal present-day enemy, because the snake is older than 

 man on this continent. It then possessed no enemies, excepting the 

 bison, against which it could not successfully defend itself without 



:8"The Reptile Book," Op. Cit., p. 431. 



29Cope, E. D. "Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus.," p. 1189, 1900. 



«»Op. Cit., p. lloO. 



3i"The Reptile Book," Op. Cit., p. 429. 



