22 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
earth the gopher excavates in digging the hole. Such would 
leave a trail to betray his presence. Rather, he crawls out over 
the back of the hole where the litter and sod have not been 
disturbed. In coming in and going out of his hole he so man¬ 
ages that he will not leave the slightest impression for two or 
three feet down the hole. He will not choose a hole upon 
ground that is barren. He prefers to do his sunning of warm 
spring days to the rear of his hole, since he usually enters and 
leaves his quarters through the back door. For the reasons 
stated he usually chooses a hole with palmettoes in the rear 
and delights in coiling or stretching out underneath the dead 
leaves which rest upon the ground. Such a location for sun¬ 
ning, on the south side of a cluster of palmettoes, serves a 
double purpose. These dead leaves very nearly match the color 
of his skin, and the clusters of palmettoes serve to shield him 
from the biting north wind. If the back of the hole be not 
exactly to his liking, yet the front provides well for his needs, 
he occasionally goes into his front yard to do his sunning. In 
taking his sun bath there are two essentials—he must be able 
to expose himself to the warming rays of the sun and at the 
same time be rather well concealed from the eyes of passing 
men or other enemies. It is nothing less than remarkable how 
he can so completely conceal himself, even underneath the 
sheerest deposit of dead wiregrass. A ten-pound rattler can 
thrust his head and neck inside a small tuft of wiregrass, then 
draw his body after him, and so coil himself inside that no 
passerby would so much as suspicion that this harmless-looking 
tuft of grass was literally a den of death. Hunters and others 
who might have occasion to pass his way on warm spring days 
should exercise never-failing precaution—passing in front of 
the hole and never to the rear. A safer rule is to miss these 
holes by twenty feet at least—they seldom, if ever, stray more 
than twenty feet from their holes to do their sunning. 
This old gentleman once related to the writer in detail his 
experience having to do with finding a female rattler’s nest. 
According to his story it was located underneath a pile of pine 
logs which had, at some time or other, been partially consumed 
by fire. The flame had hollowed out the logs underneath, thus 
