TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 13 



ago. During an outing with a 

 number of friends last fall along 

 the San Antonio River, below San 

 Antonio, one of. our party, whilst 

 getting ready to put his fishijig 

 line into the water, was surprised 

 by a rustling among the, leaves and 

 shrubbery along the river bottom, 

 and upon closer search, one of 



the multi-colored kingsnakes wa s 

 seen battling with another variety 

 of prairie snake. It had the other 

 snake in its mouth, and had 

 nearly entirely swallowed it. At 

 another outing, near the same 

 fishing place about a mile below 

 the Mission Espada, we came across 

 a very large kingsnake, which had. 

 in its mouth and throat a young 

 kingsnake, and we were in doubt 

 whether this latter instance was 

 a case of protection of its offspring, 

 or, as with the other specimen, 

 a case of cannibalism. Both of 

 these snakes were photographed, 

 and one of the views is the second 

 one on the lower row seen in the 

 miniature photo collection. Dur- 

 ing that same day of our out- 

 ing, whilst getting a bucket of 

 water from a spring close to a 

 ravine near the , river, I met a 

 moccasin about one and a half 

 feet long in my path, and the 

 snake at once showed fight by 

 thrusting its head upward with 

 wide-open, mouth. This genuine 

 moccasin, of the "cotton-mouth" 

 variety, when first seen was of. 

 unusual thickness, and therefore 

 I was the more anxious to kill 

 it, to note what it had swallowed. 

 With a stick and heavy blow,_ I 

 nearly severed its head from its 

 body, and bringing it on a forked 



stick to camp, we all guessed what 

 it might have in its stomach, 

 some guessed it was a frog, others 

 said it was a toad, and a lady 

 naturalist of. our party suggested 

 a rat. On opening its abdomen, 

 we immediately saw that our lady 

 naturalist had guessed correctly, 

 for it contained a full-sizie" water- 

 rat. The photo in the second last 

 row, shows the same small moc- 

 casin with the rat exposed in its 

 stomach. Near the neck-part of 

 the snake, which was split open 

 from the severe blow, the photo 

 shows the tail of the rat protruding 

 outside. 



As to the various types of the 

 Texas tarantula spider, much su- 

 perstition and ignorance still existst 

 As a rule, they are quite as harmless 

 as many other poisonous animals, 

 if not annoyed or incidentally 

 touched. A detailed account of our 

 Texas prairie spiders has been pub- 

 lished some years ago by the writer 

 in Texas Field, which will be found 

 on the following pages. The small j et 

 black and reddish-striped jumping 

 tarantula, encountered occasionally 

 in gardens and forests, is about the 

 most dangerous type to be encoun- 

 tered, and the writer cbiild cite sev- 

 eral serious but not fatal, cases of 

 venom-inoculation from these in- 

 sects. One large type of tarantula, 

 rarely met with in these days 

 in inhabited places, but occasionally 

 encountered in open prairies, where 

 they sometimes move in large 

 colonies, is seen depicted in the 

 third row of the collection. This 

 same huge tarantula was captured 

 by Private A. F. Denton, U. S. 

 Army, in camp near Fort -Mcin- 

 tosh, Texas, and Mr. Denton sent 

 the animal alive to San Antonio, 

 where pictures of same were taken 

 by Wm. Stucke, Dr. A. Lange, 

 Veterinary Surgeon, and myself, 

 and I submit one of the photos on 

 page 15 showing the monster tar- 

 antula in front of the rat it killed. 

 (The photo being taken in the 

 sunlight through the glass panel 

 of the, box: at close range). In 



