ZOOLOGY. » 693 
open to doubt. The length of the spike in this case is said to be 
two feet and a half, which is enormous when itis considered that 
the fully developed antlers of old bucks of this species rarely 
much exceed two feet, measured along the curvature of the beam 
to the end of the longest point. On the other hand, it is just such 
a spike as is usually developed in a two-year old buck elk (C. 
Canadensis), an animal also common in Kansas along the Kansas 
Pacific Railway. 
The occurrence of spike-horned bucks in C. Virginianus, which 
has of late attracted so much attention, seems in no way remark- 
able. Prof. Baird, in writing of the O. Virginianus in 1857, says, 
“Sometimes a perfectly adult, full-grown male will have but a 
single slender spike, thus resembling the buck of the second year.” 
Mam. N. Amer., p. 647.) —J. A. A 
Since the above was written I have learned from Prof. Cope 
that he at first also regarded the horns as those of a two-year old 
elk, and only referred them to C. macrotis on being assured that 
the elk did not occur at the locality (Fort. Hays, Kansas) where 
these horns were obtained. From personal knowledge, however, 
I am able to affirm that the elk is of quite common occurrence 
Within a few miles of Fort Hays.—J. A. A 
Tue RATTLE or THE RATTLESNAKE, — At a meeting of the 
Essex Institute in May last Mr. F. W. Putnam gave a description 
of the structure of the horny appendage to the tail of many 
snakes, especially developed in the genus of Rattlesnakes, and 
controverted the idea of natural selection having anything to do 
with its peculiar development. He also thought that the suppo- 
sition that the rattle was a benefit to the snake, as a means of 
enticing birds, by its sound imitating that made by the Cicada, as 
Suggested by a writer in a late number of the Narorauist, could 
not be accepted. The Cicada, during the few weeks that it existed 
in the adult state; at which time the males made their peculiar 
drumming, was not a ground insect, and was not very abundant, 
even among the trees, in such localities as were most frequented 
by the rattlesnake. Secondly, the sound made by the snake was 
Very slight under ordinary circumstances, and the rattle was not 
Sounded to any extent unless the snake was ‘disturbed by some 
cause. His own observations on these snakes, in their natural 
habitat, led him to believe that it was not at all their nature to 
