12 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONlS AND REMINISCENCES. 



tomical difference between the head 

 of an eel and that of a rattlesnake, 

 (lower row), and the close resem- 

 blance of an eel to a nonpoison- 

 ous snake. The depicted beast 

 (Crotalus horridus) came near 

 making the writer "immune" from 

 writing about it for good. A 

 party of us were hunting quail and 

 wild doves in a friend's pasture 

 where lots of sunflowers ripen in 

 falltime, and millions of doves 



signal, only about four or five 

 feet in front of me. Luckily, 

 however, I had not crossed the 

 wire, or else the reptile would 

 have struck me, since it had al- 

 ready coiled into a spiral shape 

 and was rattling fiercely. As quick 

 as I noticed the beast, I put a shell 

 into the gun and shot its neck in 

 two. The snake had unusually 

 large fangs, and I took a close 

 focus view of the head afterwards — 



A Texas Centepede 



congregated on mesquite trees by 

 a nearby tank, for their nocturnal 

 rest. We were close to the wire 

 fence of the pasture, when several 

 doves were seen alighting close to 

 us but inside the wire enclosure. 

 With the gun unloaded, and in 

 the act of crossing between the 

 wires, I was horrified to hear a 

 huge rattlesnake giving its warning 



nicely depicted on page 13. Had 

 my leg been entangled inH the 

 wire fence, I certainly would have 

 been struck; but as it was the rat- 

 tler got the worst of it. 



As to Texas prairie snakes in 

 general, occasionally one comes 

 across queer freaks of nature, 

 such as have been also described 

 in the Texas Field some years 



