TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 7 



Formerly, the report said, many 

 more deaths occurred, as scorpions 

 were then much more numerous, 

 and a bounty has been paid for 

 nearly 100 years for the extermi- 

 nation of scorpions in Mexico. 

 (Official figures from Probate Office 

 in Mexico, at Durango.) 



These statistics, as compared to 

 our North American scorpions 

 show that our scorpions are a rather 

 harmless creature as far as death- 



Mexican scorpion as compared to 

 our Texas variety. It is of nearly 

 one half size longer and of a light 

 yellowish-brown color, and its tail 

 end venom receptacle harbors a 

 most poisonous fluid which it in- 

 jects through its needle-sharp and 

 curved tail-end-claw. This speci- 

 men was sent to the writer by 

 Dr. Jackson of Durango, Mexico, 

 and it killed a mouse in confine- 

 ment with same, the experiment 



A Texas Scorpion with Young Ones 



cases from same are concerned, 

 and as to Southwest Texas, no 

 deaths from the scorpion bite are 

 re3orded in the official mortuary 

 records of San Antonio, as far as 

 twenty or more years back. (Jno. 

 U. Mueller, Secretary of San An- 

 tonio Bureau of Deaths, having 

 looked up this record for me.) 



The separate photo-view of three 

 scorpions in natural size, shows 

 the great difference in size of the 



being conducted by my friend. 

 Dr. A. Lange, veterinary Surgeon 

 of San Antonio. Such experi- 

 ments, I may add, whilst they 

 appear horrid to some, it, should 

 be remembered that mice and 

 rats, being great public nuisances, 

 they are often cruelly dealt with 

 by drowning or strangled to 

 death in traps, or poisoned, and 

 a chicken or a turkey's head is 

 without much feeling, chopped off 



