Show BUTTONS NO PROOF OF AGE Outing Magazine It is a very common fallacy concern concerning concernIng concerning ing rattlesnakes that each segment or of orthe orthe the rattle indicates a year of the set sei S l existence and it will probably proba ly lybe be accepted until some one ona devises a safe sate method of examining the teeth One has only to stand for a half hour hourin in front of the rattlers cage at any zoological garden or museum to hear it repeated several times together with many other bits bit of misinformation which make the average Nature Sto Story Story ry nIT seem a statement of ot bald fact by b comparison Although the young rattlesnake comes into the world equipped with but a single button on the end of its tail when a year old it may have as many manyas as a half dozen segments while three a year may be taken as a fair development In hunting crawling over rough country and through tangled tan tangled tangled brush the rattles are apt to be injured or lost and occasionally a very large specimen is seen with but two tw or three segments while one of the band banded banded ed variety procured in Pennsylvania for the Bronx zoo was less than three feet In length and possessed seven teon perfect rattles the absence of the ter terminal terminal terminal minal congenital button demonstrating that one or more pieces had bean b en lost lostA lostA lostA A segment is added to the rattle each time the snake casts and this may occur every month of the snakes active season which in the northern states lasts from May until the first fint severe storm of winter drives it to the den for Its long hibernation This cast castIng casting Ing of the skin which is common to all serpents and many of the H ards is a ac curious c provision to protect the reptile from disease and discomfort and md like most of natures provisions it is a wise one Since the day when the serpent w was s condemned to crawl abject on its belly Instead of wriggling gracefully upon Its Ita taU tall as a punishment for whispering ng suggestions for tor the fall Into the eager ear of Eve it has been peculiarly liable liable lia ha hable ble to injure its sensitive s Integument Int and spending sp its It existence nc In lii close con contact contact contact tact with the thO ground gt und V it becomes the unwilling host of many maby ticks and para parasites parasites sites which are harbored by the decay decaying decayIng decaying ing vegetation Any unfortunate w nho ho hohas i ihas has accumulated a few wood ticks and j laboriously removed them from his hide with the point of a knife and am inonia will appreciate how much it would be b to grow a new skin and envy the serpent the th ready read means meis s at its disposal sal to rid Itself lf of oC th lh the unwelcome ti lw pests |