146 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
working knowledge of the art of extermination without expos¬ 
ing themselves to the dangers he had known due to inexperi¬ 
ence. Every person into whose hands one of such volumes 
might fall and whose lands had become heavily infested might 
rid himself of them readily, once having taken the time and 
trouble to acquaint himself with a better knowledge of their 
habits. 
It is a pretty generally known fact that the rattler likes 
rough woodland, shunning timbered lands which have been 
burned over. Due to this fact, land owners burn the dead grass 
and litter off their lands annually, resulting in the loss of mil¬ 
lions of young trees, denuding the soil of much of its available 
plant food, promoting erosion, and otherwise destroying assets 
of incalculable value to themselves, the State and Nation. A 
simpler, and by far more sensible plan, would be to inaugurate 
a campaign of extermination when the rattler has taken refuge 
in his winter quarters. A careful checking has definitely re¬ 
vealed the fact that territory which has been carefully hunted 
during the winter months is free from the pest during the fol¬ 
lowing months of summer, provided, of course, that the job 
has been painstakingly done by men skilled in the art. These 
old wizards of the woodland are, however, thoroughly awake 
to their own interests, and though they have been completely 
exterminated on one large tract of land, and permitted to 
thrive on lands adjacent thereto, they soon discover the fact 
that game is plentiful over on the lands where their kinsmen 
have been exterminated, and when the landowner least expects 
it some Mrs. Rattler will truck her entire family over into 
such promising territory and turn them loose on such land- 
owner, with the result that his land will be completely rein¬ 
fested overnight. 
It is a difficult matter for the average person to understand 
that territory so thickly settled would at the same time prove 
so inviting to these unwelcome tenants. We rather suspect that 
such person has failed to reckon with their intellectual keenness. 
It is indeed perplexing that any creature so universally hated 
and dreaded by practically every living thing could hope or be 
expected to survive under such circumstances. If one can, then 
