THE MATCHLESS SPLENDOR OF THE RATTLER’S 
TIARA RIVALS THAT OF AN EASTERN 
POTENTATE 
The following experience was related by an old gentleman 
who lives in the neighborhood of the great Okefenokee Swamp 
in Georgia. It illustrates the deadly power of fascination ex¬ 
erted by the rattlesnake over birds and small animals which it 
captures for food. 
The narrator was walking along a settlement road one 
bright summer morning when his attention was suddenly ar¬ 
rested by the unusual behavior of a small bird flitting about 
from weed to weed, all the while chirping in a terrified and 
distressed manner. Though the bird would fly away for a 
short distance, he would invariably return to the location of 
whatever it was that appeared to fascinate him. His interest 
seemed to center about one particular spot, and as soon as the 
old gentleman took his gaze from the bird to look for the 
source of his distress, he located the object that held the bird 
under his hypnotic influence. 
On the other side of a log, with head erect and tongue dart¬ 
ing back and forth, was a large rattlesnake. It seemed that 
the snake was handicapped when he first observed the bird, in 
that he was behind a log from him, and hence had to employ 
means not ordinarily used to fascinate his prey. He reared up 
out of his coil to a considerable height. The skin of his throat 
and neck was somewhat spread after the manner of the cobra 
and he was swaying back and forth with a rhythmical move¬ 
ment. 
Most deadly of the North American poisonous serpents, and 
ranking in size with the largest of the tropical venomous snakes 
of both the New and Old World, this huge rattlesnake, with 
its brilliant and symmetrical markings, was a beautiful and 
terrible object. There was a certain awe-inspiring grandeur 
about the coil of this formidable brute; the glittering black 
eyes, the slow-waving tongue, and the incessant rasping note 
ir „ * 
211 
