I SO SNAKES KILLING MICE. 
Then they would be so gracious to their human 
friends when they felt in a condescending mood. 
Her other pets, the rattlesnakes, were gifted 
with entirely different dispositions. Whereas the 
bears were very demonstrative, these seldom ex- 
pressed any emotion, and never quarrelled about 
the mice which were given them for food. They 
would never eat these unless they themselves 
killed them. This they did by striking them with 
their poisoned fangs ; and here a curious fact may 
be noted. 
Their venom, so deadly to other creatures, is 
harmless to themselves ; as is proven, not only 
by their eating mice so killed, but by the fact 
that one of them bit itself and was not injured. 
A man was so foolhardy as to hold it in his 
fingers by the back of its neck. In its desperate 
efforts to bite him, it struck its fangs into its own 
body, drawing Tlood, yet showing no sign of 
being poisoned. 
They never molested snakes or other reptiles 
which were put into the case with them, no matter 
what their size or family. Like most other ven- 
omous serpents, they are ovoviviparous ; and 
soon after the capture of the first rattlesnake, she 
made Mrs. Maxwell the happy possessor of eleven 
young ones; however, only six of them survived 
any length of time. These were subjects of espe- 
cial interest and attraction, and Mrs. Maxwell had 
