28 Scientific Society of San Antonio. 



passing through one of these dog towns in Wallace county, 

 Kansas, we heard a most unusual noise and stir (in the town) 

 as though they were holding a bellicose council. They were 

 collected around a hill, into which they were scraping dirt vig- 

 orously. On examining the burrow, it was found to contain a 

 large rattlesnake, that the dogs were trying to entomb. I no- 

 ticed this several times, as did other members of our party. To 

 leave no doubt upon the subject, we dug out the snakes after 

 shooting them." 



I am very sorry, gentlemen, that this report already has tres- 

 passed the limits of your indulgence, but I can not refrain, be- 

 fore closing, from calling your attention to chart No. 3 also, 

 which represents some unusual and very interesting objects. 

 One of the photos shows the poison fangs of a rattlesnake very 

 highly magnified, as seen in transverse section, with the poison 

 canal and its exit near the end of the sharp-pointed fang. 

 Another shows the peculiar warning apparatus or rattlers of a 

 monstrous rattlesnake which had tweny-six rattles and a button. 

 This interesting specimen was kindly handed to me by Mr. 

 Menck, proprietor of the San Pedro Springs Museum and 

 Zoological Garden, and this photo is, as seen, a most life-like 

 reproduction and it shows what an enormous creature the rattle- 

 snake must have been. The third photo shows the wide-open 

 mouth of the European adder — Kreuzotter in German — showing 

 the large poison fangs covered by a retractable and broad mem- 

 brane, and the smaller supernumerary teeth of the upper maxil- 

 lary bone. I reproduced this illustration from a drawing in Reich- 

 enbach's works on natural history. Photo number 4 is 

 from a drawing in Gross' "System of Surgery," magnified 

 several times, showing the complex muscles of the head and 

 jaws, and the relationship of the poison bladder to its ducts and 

 the fangs. Plate 5 represents the nine-foot boa constrictor 

 at San Pedro Springs, as seen gracefully stretched out 

 in its cage in a semi-circle- This is a beautiful and rare snake, 

 non-poisonous, and alone worth the trouble to pay it a visit and 

 study its nature. But one of the most interesting objects on 

 this chart is the reproduction of the Gila monster, seen at our 

 San Pedro Springs Museum. It is an unusually large speci- 

 men ; unluckily in taking its picture at too close focus, the head 

 outlines are not very plain. From long confinement, this veno- 



