Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1879 — Feeding Rattlesnakes. [ARTICLE]

Feeding Rattlesnakes.

Poisonous snakes very seldom take food in captivity. Of some species, no specimen has ever been found that would do so. As a rule, they obstinately starve themselves, sometimes living for nine or even twelvemonths without eating, growing gradually weaker, day by day, until they finally die. Crotalus horridus is not that sort of a snake. He is practical, ready in adapting himself to circumstances, and if he is hungry, is so because nothing digestible is at hand to be killed and swallowed. Mr. Bergh objects to snakes being fed with living animals. So when the rattlesnakes' monthly meal-time comes, as it did on Thursday last, he is never an invited guest. An hour was chosen when there were no strangers in the aquarium, and the dinner was served. Manager Butler acted as Superintendent, at a respectful distance. Dr. Dorner plaved head-waiter, and had two able assistant?. A large, fat rat was put in the cage of a rattlesnake about three feet long. The rat manifested a cheerful indifference to the situation, that was no doubt based on the happy delusion that its companion was simply a harmless big worm. It trotted unconcernedly over the outlying sections of snake, peered down among the coils for something to eat, and stared with innocent surprise and curiosity at the upraised loudly-rattling tail. Its nonchalance actually seemed to astonish the snake, and caused him to hesitate about opening hostilities against such a cool customer. That situation was maintained for five minutes. All that time the rattlesnake’s warning notes were sounding, and it lay coiled with its neck curved ready to strike, and its eyes fairly blazing with malignant ferocity. At length it struck at the rat —and missed. The rat seemed to think nothing more of the occurrence than that the worm wanted to change his position and seemed to be in a hurry about it. There was no apparent alarm, but only an excess of curiosity in the mind of the frisky rodent about the quivering, whizzing tail, to satisfy ’himself concerning which he walked deliberately up to it and smelled it. As he did so the snake struck again, and that time caught his victim’s left hind leg. A horrible thing Crotalus horridus was in that moment of pouncing upon his victim. The flat, .broad head was opened into an enormous mouth; in the widely-distended jaws the large, hooked, venomous fangs 'Were erected; the eyes glbwed with fury. Quicxer than sight could follow-the motion the deadly blow was inflicted. One instant the snake was motionless, the next its fangs were fastened in the leg of the struggling, squeaking and now thoroughly-alarmed rat. ana the next it had returned to its former attitude, still threatening, but simply following, with watchful eyes, the movements of its victim, without essaying any further attack. The frightened rat lost instantly the use of the leg that had been struck. On its other three legs it first sprang about as if in wild terror, then dragged itself around the cage more and more slowly; at length it crawled among the coils of the’snake, and there expired. Thirteen minutes elapsed from the time it was bitten until it was dead.

Almost immediately the snake proceeded to the swallowing process. There was no preparatory moistening, coiling upon, and pressing of the body. The snake simply seized the rat’s head in his mouth, and commenced operations. His upper jaw is built in two sections, right and left, and he can move them separately, backward or forward. Hooking the teeth of one section into the rat’s hide, he would slide the other section forward a little and take a fresh hold with its teeth. Then the first that made fast would let go, come to the front, and rig a new purchase. In that way, by alternate advances of the right and left sections of "his upper jaw, he slowly pushed, his dinner down. But it took him twenty niihtltes to dOTfc*-- —— —- - - Several other rats were fed to the rattlesnakes, with little variation of incident, except that their individual characteristics were variously displayed. None was as unconscious of danger and impudently sociable as the first, and none was as plucky as the seventh, which, upon receiving the fatal bite, sprang at the snake to make fight. The poison was too'active in the courageous little fellow’s veins, however. Even as he reached the reptile’s neck his limbs stiffened, his jaws became set, and he rolled over on his back, weakly kicking and gasping for some minutes, and then died. The quickest death was that of the fourth fat, which was bitten in the head, fell immediately, and was seemingly dead in less than a minute. Dr. Domer, who knows almost as much about snakes as if he had made them, explains that, as soon as a rattlesnake has eaten in captivity, the quantity and activity of its poison inci eases, quickly causing the interval between the bite and its fatal result, upon small animals at least, to become very short indeed. But if fed too often, the reptile’s venom loses in activity, so that sometimes several bites are insufficient to kill.— N. Y. Sun. The public lands of Texas, originally 250,000,000 acres in extent, are now reported at 31,000;000 acres. In Texas the public lands belong to the State, and over 200,000,000 acres have been disposed of in various ways. Now it is proposed to sell the remainder and devote the proceeds to the payment of the State debt. —A Maplewood men purchased a bale of pressed hay in the bfty, a few days since, and on opening it a fine specimen of pressed rattlesnake was found neatly coiled up in the center. His snakesnip was about five feet in length and had ten rattles. — Chicago Journal. . It is hard to get ahead of time, but a musician often beats it