104 



METHODS OF CAPTURE AND HANDLING. 



RELATION OP TEMPORAL MUSCLES TO THE GLAND. 



a, a, anterior temporal muscle; &, its insertion in the lower jaw; 

 c, venom gland; <£, the fang, half erected. (Mitchell.) 



near the neck dart the head forward, and are accompanied by a wonder- 

 ful series of muscular operations resulting in the poisoned stroke. The 

 mechanism of this action, the poison and its nature, and apparatus for 



its discharge, are matters 

 upon which I need not 

 touch here. Dr. Mit- 

 chell's paper, alluded to 

 on page 103, discusses 

 them thoroughly ; and 

 the accompanying illus- 

 trations, redrawn from his 

 monograph, make plain 

 the anatomy of the com- 

 plicated poison apparatus. 

 Similarly the interesting 

 pathological effects of the 

 venom, which is a septic or putrefacient poison of astounding energy, 

 may be omitted. 



When one recalls how many of these venomous serpents have been 

 secured alive, the question of how they are caught becomes one of some 

 interest. The Indian method was to put a long forked stick over their 

 necks, and then noose them with a bit of thong. This is the ordinary 

 fashion yet, and quite safe if you are careful. The circumstance that a 

 big one once crawled out from under my blankets in a Rocky Mountain 

 camping-place, when they were pnlled aside in the morning, gave me an 

 opportunity to see a man seize a rattler by the tail and dislocate its head 

 by a strong snap before the reptile had time to coil. Simpson relates 

 that his taxidermist caught one by the back of the neck in Utah ; and 

 that coolest of men, Charles Waterton, could do this every time, as he 

 showed in England to prove that he had not been romancing when he 

 described his encounters with deadly serpents in South America. A box 

 of twenty-seven living crotali had been sent to Leeds, and Waterton in- 

 vited a large party of scientific friends to see him move them one by one 

 to a glass case and back again. This he did (after cautioning the visitors 

 neither to move nor speak) by silently, slowly, and quietly slipping his 

 hand along the back of each snake till he could grasp him gently behind 

 the head and softly lift him into the other box. He trusted for his im- 

 munity to the sluggish nature of the creatures, and to the fact that he 

 did nothing to arouse their fears. 



Once in West Virginia I had brought to me a good-sized rattler that 



