200 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
laterally instead of directly forward as do others of its genus. Its principal 
food is insects and sand lizards. 
The Prairie Rattlesnake is still fairly plentiful along the Missouri and 
its tributaries, but its favorite haunt is in the Rocky Mountains. They 
spend the hot season amid ravines or canons, being specially fond of willows, 
since among such growth they are chiefly found. When the fall approaches 
they seek some inviting hole, and very often in this search they take up their 
abode in the holes of prairie-dogs. From this well-known fact has come the 
belief that the rattlesnake , owl and prairie-dog have some natural affinity for 
each other, and that the three live in harmony like a happy family. The snake 
is an intruder into the home of the prairie-dog, but is too powerful an adver¬ 
sary to be expelled. But he crawls into his winter quarters at a time when 
the season of fasting is at hand, and when partial stupefaction from cold 
destroys his spirit so that he cannot be provoked into an attack unless first 
warmed into action. The owl, however, is a violator of the prairie-dog’s house, 
since he does not consider the hospitality of the host, but visits the ground¬ 
ling with sinister motives, no less than an intent to make a meal off the young 
members of the rodent’s family. 
Thus two very diverse purposes 
bring the rattlesnake and the prai¬ 
rie-dog together. 
The Massassauga Rattlesnake 
is more distinctively a prairie dweller 
than the one just described, for he 
never leaves the prairie at any sea¬ 
son, and this adaptation enables him 
to abstain from water for a very 
long time. Of the species mentioned, 
none grow to exceed six feet in 
length, but the massassauga has 
been frequently seen fully eight feet 
long. Being the largest of the Cro - 
talus species, its poison is most virulent, but the extreme sluggishness of the 
creature renders it little likely to do injury to a human being, who is sure to 
receive ample warning of its presence by a loud rattling. Extremely poisonous 
as this reptile is, it responds to kind and careful treatment, and in a mea¬ 
sure may become domesticated. I have a friend who, while living for a time 
in central Nebraska, captured a massassauga rattler , and as he had a great 
love for pets of any kind, in his lonely condition he resolved to see what 
effect careful attention to its wants would produce. Accordingly he secured 
the snake and deposited it in one corner of his rude cabin, fenced off, so to 
speak, by some boxing, so as to prevent it from escaping, or doing him 
harm. Every day he watched it attentively, introduced every kind of food, 
and talked to the reptile as he would, to a human being. The snake at first 
resented all such advances, but gradually came to regard his master with 
more kindly concern, and at length would take such food as it had a liking 
for directly it was offered. By gradual approaches he finally secured an 
amiable recognition from his singular and deadly pet. A winter thus passed, 
the snake being kept during the time in comfortably warm quarters, and when 
MASSASSAUGA RATTLER (C. COIlfluentuS ). 
