Excerpt from Louisiana Conservation Review, Vol. 4: July, 1934

The rattles of Rattlesnakes are structures unique in the animal world. Many snakes, even the harmless species such as the Hog-nosed Snake (called popularly the Spreading Adder or Puff Adder) possess the habit Of rapidly vibrating their tails when excited. If the snake happens to lie coiled among dried leaves, the resulting sound may closely resemble that of a rattle. Snakes Shed their skins at varying intervals and the formation Of the rattlesnake's rattle is Simply the result of the fact that, in each successive molting, a peculiar interlocking button is formed and re mains on the snake's tail. _the popular idea that the number of buttons in a rattle indicates the snake's age, is completely wrong. It is simply another example Of a very general and very good idea, one of those many good ideas with which the only trouble is that they are not true. The Shedding Of the snake's Skin depends upon many variable factors, amount of food, rate Of growth, temperature, etc. Furthermore, the wear and tear to which the snake's activities expose the rattle, cause the abrasion and breaking Off Of variable numbers of the buttons. The number of buttons, thus, if all were retained, would be Sim ply the record Of the number of times the snake has molted, and this might well have no constant relation with age. When, further, the buttons may be destroyed by wear or by accident, the number Of rattles present comes to mean exactly nothing. There is a popular idea, that a rattler cannot rattle while its rattle is wet. The writer has experimentally and readily disproved this many times, by the simple Operation Of turning water on a caged and angry four and one-half foot Timber Rattler. Wetting the rattles changed the sound, producing a Slightly muffled rattle.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.