Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1910 — GILA MONSTER OF MEXICO. [ARTICLE]

GILA MONSTER OF MEXICO.

One Traveler Who Doesn't Believe That It* Bite Ie Fatal. The other day I came across a fine large Gila monster (heloderma snspectum) waddling along a dusty r trail, noosed It with a piece of string and carried it to camp. ’You want to be careful how you handle them things,” Sonora warned me, J. W. Schultz says In Forest and Stream. “Many a fellow has died by bein’ bit by ’eta.” I asked for particulars, names of the victims, dates and places of their untimely demise, duration and character of their suffering. ‘Well, I myself never seen any one bit by .’em,” he answered, “but I’ve heard of *enfi plenty. Any Mexican will tell you that their bite kills.” I used an old washtub for a pen for my lizards, and that, evening when Enders’ chickens went to roost I captured a lean ana. venerable rooster for an experimenk'l had in view. In the morning, grkspipg the bird by the legs, I thrust it time and again head first against the head of the monster, but the latter onjy shrank back and sluggishly attempted to turn tail to the attacks. I goaded it with a stick, even switched it with a willow cutting, but nothing I did aroused ire. Finally 1 killed the heloderma, made an incision in the rooster’s thigh and inoculated it with the well mixed blood, saliva and fluid from the former’s mouth, throat and upper and lower jaw. “I’ll bet that rooster’ll be dead in an hour!” exclaimed Sonora, who was assisting in the experiment. “I don’t know about an hour, but I’ll bet he’ll be dead before night,” Old Timer offered. Three days, have elapsed and except for a slight lameness the rooster has shown no effect of the ordeal. At this moment he is scratching around at the head of his harem and crowing as nonchalantly as ever he did. I have concluded that the Gila monster has no poison glands. Portions of unewallowed food may and doubtless do ferment in its mouth at times, and thus a persbn bitten by one may be poisoned.