Our Natural Enemies. IgI 
are frequently massed together with them, are carried home, 
when the oil is simply tried out, bottled up and is then 
ready for the market and the credulous patient. 
No subject connected with snakes, it would seem, has 
attracted so much attention as the vexed one as to the care 
which they take of their young. Snakes would hardly be 
expected to show any great amount of maternal affection, 
but that they do, and in a most remarkable manner, by 
taking their young into their mouths, if alarmed, is a well- 
established fact. The mother, when danger is imminent, 
sounds her rattle as a signal, opens her very large mouth, 
and receives in it her little family. 
The bite of nearly all rattlesnakes is extremely dangerous, 
though not necessarily fatal in the smaller kinds. Almost 
all animals succumb to their bite, and even man himself, if 
the proper remedy is not at hand. There is a general belief 
that the hog is exempt, and acting upon this belief farmers 
have been known, where these reptiles are very abundant, 
to turn in a few hogs upon them for their destruction. This 
animal, though it has a fondness for the reptile, and exercises 
a great deal of caution in its attack, has not infrequently 
been killed by the reptile’s poisonous fangs. Large doses 
of whiskey have been successful in neutralizing the effects of 
the poison, but it has been practically and experimentally 
proved that permanganate of potash is the best antidote. 
But of all the poisonous snakes of this country, the Cop- 
perhead, Axcistrodon contortrix, is the most dreaded. In the 
South, he is known as the Cotton-mouth, Moccasin and 
Red-eye, and is just as common in the Gulf States as in 
the Atlantic and Middle States. He attains a length of 
two feet, is of a hazel hue, the head having a bright cop- 
pery lustre, and loves to conceal himself in shady spots in 
meadows of high grass, where he feeds upon small animals, 
rarely, if ever, attacking large ones unless trodden on. The 
mother Copperhead has also been observed to shelter her 
young in her mouth when threatened by danger. 
