Original Observations on Reptiles and Insects of Texas. 2? 



enables it to crush and swallow animals many times the 

 size of the snake's head. Entire full-grown rats and bush rab- 

 bits, and in several instances even full-grown jack rabbits, have 

 been observed to be devoured by monstrous rattlesnakes. Mr. 

 C. Hummel of our city related to me some time ago such 

 an occurrence, as related to him by some farmer, and a German 

 farmer from Medina also told me that he had met in his pas- 

 ture a fearfully large rattler in the act of swallowing a jack 

 rabbit. These are exceedingly rare observations, but a fact, and 

 could only occur in very large rattlers. The average length of 

 a rattlesnake is generally not more than three or four feet, 

 as they are generally prematurely killed, but there are instances 

 on record in which the killed snake measured up to eight and 

 even more feet, and these are the ones liable to devour an ani- 

 mal the size of a- full-grown jack rabbit. 



It will be noticed that where such game as prairie rats and 

 rabbits abound, the dreaded rattler is also very numerous. In 

 Helotes, northwest of San Antonio, for instance, rattlers are 

 very numerous in certain regions on account of the quantity 

 of small game, whilst further north, in the more mountainous 

 regions, around San Geronimo, where there is less small game 

 (only a very few prairie rats and rabbits), the rattlesnake is a 

 great rarity. This corresponds with the statement made by natur- 

 alists and others of countries where the prairie dog is at home. 

 A very interesting history of such a "dog town and rattlers"' 

 is mentioned in Dr. Cope's classical classification work (Report 

 of National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 1900; from the 

 pen of Dr. H. A. Brous, American Naturalist, Vol. XVI, page 

 585, 1882) : "Prairie dogs (Cynomys Ludovicianus) seem to have 

 a most intense dread of rattlesnakes. These little animals dread 

 not alone its venomous bite, but also the loss of their young, 

 which serve as food for these snakes that enter their burrow-. 

 take possession and drive them from their homes. Where does 

 one find a prairie dog town but it is teeming with snakes, and 

 the strange little owd that 'ducks' to passers in ludicrous solem- 

 nity ? These do not constitute a happy family. The owls, 

 though they generally' occupy an abandoned hole or burrow, 

 destroy the young dogs. Nor do the eggs and nestlings of 

 the owl fare with any better treatment from the snakes: be- 

 tween them there exists much enmity. One afternoon while 



