CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
225 
a small tributary of the Satilla River, known to the early 
Spanish settlers as Saint Ilia. The owner of the land men¬ 
tioned very casually that he killed them of similar description 
in this same vicinity occasionally and he was equally puzzled 
as regards their true classification. Disposing of him finally 
to a large museum he invited the curator to accord him special 
attention and give him the benefit of his opinion. In due course 
of time he had a letter from the museum communicating the 
astounding information that this fellow lived in an environ¬ 
ment where there was an abundance of red clay, and crawling 
upon this was the cause of him getting his belly shined a bright 
copper color. Such an opinion from an “expert” caused Uncle 
Dave to go squarely off the handle like an old grubbing hoe. 
He had been noosing rattlers for half a century and there was 
absolutely no difference between this fellow’s environment and 
that of others he had been catching in years gone by. 
If guesswork and theorizing were in order, then he would do 
some himself. There being no biological difference between 
the diamond-back and the water-rattler, and some of the char¬ 
acteristics of the two being combined in this one, there re¬ 
mained little doubt in his mind but that two of opposing species 
had entered into a state of cohabitation, and that this half- 
breed had inherited the rattles of his diamond-back daddy and 
the color of his sea-going mamma. 
