THE LIVING WORLD. 
x 97 
Gordon Cummings, the African hunter, was first to bring this wonderful 
snake to the attention of the civilized world, in the following brief allusion to 
his experience with the reptile: 
“A horrid snake, which Kleinberg had tried to kill with his loading-rod, 
. flew up at my eye and spat poison in jt. I endured great pain all night; the 
next day the eye came all right again.” 
Since this report, which was much ridiculed at the time, the snake has 
come to be well known through specimens brought to England. Its bite is 
deadly, but the poison which it expels by a heavy respiration, and with a slight 
hissing noise, is not fatal unless it should fall upon an abraded surface, so as 
to reach the circulation. 
The spitting snake , also caled Haje , is as variable in coloring as the 
Asiatic co¬ 
bra, and at¬ 
tains about 
the same 
length. Like 
the homo- 
dryas it 
climbs trees 
in quest ot 
birds and 
eggs, and is 
not averse to 
water, which 
it frequently 
enters, but 
is not known 
to eat fish. 
THE RATTLE¬ 
SNAKE. 
Next to 
the cobra 
and its spe¬ 
cies, consid¬ 
ered for the deadly effect of its bite, must come the rattlesnake ot lNlortn America, 
which is known to be one of the most venomous of God’s creatures, certainly 
ranking next to the dangerous reptiles just described. As most of my readers 
know, the name rattlesnake is given to it on account of the curious termina¬ 
tion of the tail, corresponding to dry, horny, hollow rings, loosely joined at 
the edges, which rattle at the least motion. These rings vary m number 
from two or three to as many as two dozen, this being the limit, so far as 
observation shows. It is a popular belief among the Indians that * rattlesnake 
adds a ring to his rattles every time a human being becomes a victim to its 
venom. Others, including a majority of naturalists, believe that these rings are 
an index of the reptile’s life, a ring being added each year. Both of these 
opinions are without proof, for rattlesnakes in captivity have been known to 
add as many as four rings to their rattle in one year, while m others a new 
PRAIRIE rattlesnake {Crotalus durissus). 
