OCR Text |
Show BOSTON'S RATTLESNAKE AND RAT. A Bhort time since ouc of the members mem-bers of a prominent Boston manu.'ac-turing manu.'ac-turing firm spent a few weoks hunting in Florida, and on his return ho brought with him a monster rattlesnake, rattle-snake, tho gift of a friend. His snake-ship snake-ship measured about five feet iu length, aud has a body tho size of a man's nrm, the white, yellow and brown cuticle blending rather beautifully beauti-fully in patches of various forms. Tho heavy triangular head, characteristic of venomous reptiles, has a sinister expression, and in moments of excitement ex-citement the five rattles on his tail keep up an unpleasantly suggestive sugges-tive whirring, while a forked tonguo of inky blackness and surprising length darts angrily from his turtle-like turtle-like mouth. He iB no sleepy, half- starved fellow, ns may readily bo imagined, but wide awake and ready for an encounter of any kind. It was into the cage occupied by this snake that three days since a rather small sized wharf rat was introduced, in tho expectation that the rodent would form a meal for the stranger. The snake seemed to think so too, for he darted on the unwilling visitor and caught him by the neck. The rat, who had hitherto been running run-ning around the cage trying to get out, gave a sharp squeal as ha felt the serpent's fang--, and, twisting himself about, buried his teeth in tho scaly jaw ot the aggressor. The snake writhed and twisted and rattled sharp noises of alarm as the rat kept his sharp incisors at work, and before the spectators could comprehend what : had occurred the little quadruped had shaken himself loose aud was hopping in affright at the further end of the cage for a means of exit. To tho surprise of all he showed no effects of poicon, and when the snake again made a grab at him he met his creeping foe half way and Bnipped off a piece of hu forked tongue. This seemed to be rather more than the Floridian had bargained for, and he dragged himself into a corner, csst down and defeated. Since that time the rat has flourished in his strange quaiters. He capers over the body of his whilom enemy, aud and avoids the punch ef a stick by creeping under the head of the snake. The rat seems perfectly indiflerent as regards the reptile, and when the latter, roused to a high degree ot 1 anger by outsiders, makes a strike 1 at him, ho hardly takes the 1 trouble to dodge, and onlv bites back whan the rattler is unusually offensive. It is a singular condition of things, and the rat's immunity from death cannot very easily be accounted for. Boston Post. |