Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life

by Catherine Cooper Hopley

From this time the rattlesnake began to be honoured with a literature of its own—one which equals if not exceeds in interest that of any other ophidian history handed down to us; for Cleopatra’s asp has its literature, and the Cobra capella, and M’Leod’s boa, and some few other distinguished ophidians, but none so voluminous and inexhaustible as the American Crotalus with its sonorous tail.

And despite the attention of naturalists for above two hundred years, it is not yet done with. First its rattle, then its fangs, next its maternal affection and the security offered to its young in ‘its own bosom,’ then its ‘pit,’ and again its rattle—each and all in turn have continued to occupy the pen of zoologists as, with the advance of science, fresh light has been thrown upon ophiology.

American naturalists have continually something new to tell us about the Crotalus, and not even yet have they decided among themselves of what precise use that remarkable rattle is, either to its owner or its auditors.

The various theories regarding its construction, mode of growth, its age and supposed uses, will occupy the second part of the present subject; other rattlesnake features will come in their places, but first an outline of what the early English writers had to say about it will not be devoid of interest.

Natural history as a science was then in its infancy. The Royal Society of England had as yet no existence; snakes were ‘insects,’ because they lay eggs; insects were ‘serpents,’ because they creep; and the majority of all such ‘creeping things’ were ‘venomous,’ of course.

In those early days of science there was little or no recognition of species, two, or at most three, different kinds of rattlesnakes being named. The distinguishing rattle seemed enough to separate them from all other snakes: they were ‘the vipers with the bell,’ or ‘the vipers with the sounding tail.’ ‘Vipers’ they were at once decided to be, conformably with the old idea that vipers, in distinction to every other kind of snake, produced their young alive. In this respect those early observers were correct; and from their general characteristics they are still vipers in the eyes of science: that is, they belong to the sub-order Viperina, though their dentition more than any other feature separates them from the rest, and we know now that several non-venomous snakes produce live young as well as the vipers.

In appearance the rattlesnake is so well known that a minute description of it is uncalled for. Throughout the whole genera of the Crotalidæ the viperine character is seen in the broad, angular, flattish head; the thinner neck, distinct between it and the thicker body; a short, tapering tail, and a generally repulsive appearance with an evil expression about it, as if no further warning were required to announce its deadly qualities.

Nevertheless, many of the rattlesnakes possess an undeniably handsome exterior. Their colours are for the most part dark and rich, relieved with lighter markings and velvety black; often wearing a brilliant prismatic hue, which still further enriches their tints. And then the rattle at once announces the name of its owner.

It is not easy to decide on the writer or traveller from whom we get the first mention of the rattlesnake, which has an extensive geographical range on both the American continents. It was undoubtedly some South American explorer early in the sixteenth century, and long before any settlement in the New World had been made by the English.

In a rare old book, the first edition of which was published in London, 1614, viz. ‘Samvel Purchas. His Pilgrimage in all Ages; being an account of all the Places discovered since the Creation of the World,’ we hear of many Spanish and Portuguese authors who are but little known in England, and from each and all of whom the indefatigable ‘Pilgrim’ has culled information. Indeed, the book is a careful compilation from all the previous writers of any worth, though those only who mentioned the Brazilian serpents need be here introduced to the reader. These, in describing some unchanging peculiarities, and in giving us the vernacular names then common, have been of much use in assisting subsequent writers to identify certain species.