MIXED-BREED OR NEW SPECIES, WHICH? 
It would appear that nature over-exerted herself when she 
camouflaged the diamond-back—we are speaking of the true 
diamond-back which species is becoming almost exinct in this 
section of the country. This fellow is indeed a sport model 
among rattlers, being so gaudily arrayed that his colors work 
toward his extinction rather than in favor of his preservation. 
He was equipped by nature for the hill land, and his coloring 
suited his environment admirably, inasmuch as it blended with 
the natural color of the native wiregrass and fallen pine 
needles, but when most of the land was brought into cultivation 
he was left practically homeless. The swamp-rattler, though 
a true diamond-back, was of a much darker color, due to the 
nature of his environment. 
Twenty-six different species have been catalogued the world 
over (not counting Uncle Dave’s water-rattler, and a second 
discovery to which we shall presently refer), ranging in color 
all the way from jet black to snow white. The rattler adapts 
himself to ever changing conditions so readily that we are 
prone to believe that new species spring into being more readily 
than nature would breed a new species of quadruped under 
similar conditions. In addition to his camouflaged skin, nature 
provided other means of protection, in that he absorbs and 
reflects light in such manner as to make him appear the exact 
color of that with which he is surrounded. In the bright sun¬ 
light he assumes a bright hue, but transferred to shaded ground 
he becomes dark and all but disappears from view. So that 
the shaded swampland has everything to do with the swamp 
rattler assuming his present coloring. 
Pursuing this same subject farther, Uncle Dave once made 
a find which baffled him completely. In a region where no 
species had ever been found other than the diamond-back, 
swamp rattler, water-rattler, and pygmy (or ground rattler), 
he found one with a back as black as teak-wood and an abdo¬ 
men as bright as a newly-minted penny. Otherwise he was the 
same as others he had been accustomed to noosing. It was on 
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