96 POISONOUS SNAKES AND SNAKE POISONS. 



glad to be left alone and hide or crawl away in order to 

 avoid an encounter, Singhalese people make use of this 

 fact, for whenever they have to go out in the night, 

 they take with them a stick that has a loose ring fixed 

 to it. They strike it against the ground so that a loud 

 rattling noise is made ; the snakes which may be near will 

 hear it and take care to get out of the way. 



The danger of meeting with poisonous snakes is much 

 less in civilized countries, for they are not only 

 killed by farmers and other pioneers of civilization who 

 take special care to annihilate them whenever and where- 

 ever they see them in order not to be molested, but they 

 have also numerous enemies among the domestic ani- 

 mals, which make short work with them. Cats and pigs 

 are prominent as destroyers of snakes, but also an army 

 of beasts of prey, foxes, weasels, martens, many birds, 

 falcons, buzzards, vultures, owls, storks, etc., are very 

 effective in their work of exterminating those disagree- 

 able animals. Even if this were not the case, careful 

 observers have found out that snakes seem to leave those 

 places where they are liable lo be disturbed by man. It 

 is nearly impossible, for instance, to find a rattlesnake in 

 any one of the more highly cultivated agricultural dis- 

 tricts of the eastern United States, and if we want to 

 catch one, we must repair to desolate places, stony, 

 rocky or sandy territories, which furnish them numerous 

 hiding places and all the commodities of life, water, sun- 

 shine and sufficient food without obliging them to con- 

 stantly endanger their lives into the bargain. 



In connection with this point, the annihilation of 

 snakes, the question arises very naturally which are the 

 harmless or even useful ones, and which must be merci- 

 lessly pursued and killed whenever we see them. Not 

 considering those snakes which grow dangerous or at 

 least obnoxious through their size or their voracity only, 

 and keeping in mind that danger will then come only 



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