88 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
day. It was a matter of routine business with this particular 
farmer to conduct a casual survey of his plantation at rather 
regular intervals. It was not exactly necessary that he nurse 
any particular suspicion that anything was wrong, but on the 
contrary to satisfy his mind and to acquire the desired assur¬ 
ance that all was well. Where the field cornered in a low spot 
down by the river swamp was a spring place with willow trees 
growing in profusion about it, inside the field. This inviting 
spot was their rendezvous when the heat of the day drove them 
from the field. A pool of cool, refreshing water made the 
spot all the more inviting. Much as they might like it other¬ 
wise, birds and small animals will, when they gather them¬ 
selves together in great numbers and begin to really enjoy 
themselves, attract a rattler sooner or later who takes his toll 
of their number. On Mr. Farmer’s survey of his field he came 
upon a dead goose at the spring place, and the sign about the 
dead fowl afforded the clue as to the identity of his assailant. 
Had the wings of the goose been closed instead of open, as 
though in flight, he would have swallowed him with ease. 
After having killed the fowl he was compelled to push his 
platter of goose aside and return to the river and seek rabbits 
and squirrels, of which he had evidently grown tired. 
When a diamond-back attains a length of eight or nine feet, 
which they often do, they would experience no difficulty in 
swallowing a small goat or lamb, or a twenty-pound pig. Their 
jaws do not lock, and their skin is as elastic as refined rubber. 
They are probably the world’s most renowned gluttons. A 
large man, who would indulge himself as freely at the dining 
table as one of these brutes, would easily consume a half-dozen 
spring lambs at a single sitting, even then retire from the 
dining room in a half-famished condition. 
In the magazine section of one of our leading papers a 
writer (an authority on reptiles) proved—to his own satisfac¬ 
tion—that serpents could not possibly disgorge their little ones, 
even if they did swallow them in time of danger, as laymen 
contend. His contentions (based wholly upon theory) cen¬ 
tered around the fact that on his lower throat are numbers of 
small sharp teeth, all of which point down his throat. Such, he 
