BAGGING A RATTLER.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8784, 11 April 1907, Page 4

BAGGING A RATTLER.

Surely the most exciting sport is hunting and capturing the rattlesnake, says a writer in a Home paper. And it is a now sport too, this venturing into the wilderness and inviting encounters with the crawling reptile. Every sense a man possesses must bo keenly alert every instant. A single false or unguarded stop may result in an almost invisible wound that will mean groat suffering, if not death. When a rattler means mischief this is exactly what always happens He throws himself into a coil quick ns a flash. About one-third of his length, carrying his head, rises from the spiral and stands upright. It is a fine, picturesque and altogether defiant attitude, and a perfect exemplification of the legend. “Don’t tread on me.” Alertness, grace and devilry arc exhibited in every inch of the reptile. With an abrupt swiftness, unexpected from his ordinary motions, he strikes once, and is instantly .back on full guard. The blow is a stab, and is given by throwing the head forward while the half coils below it are straightened out to lengthen the neck and give power to the motions which drive the fangs into the victim’s flesh. As the fangs outer the temporal muscle closes the lower jaw on the part struck, and thus forces the sharp fangs deeper in. It is a stab aided by a bite. At this instant the poison is liberated. The same muscle which closes the jaw squeezes the gland and drives its thin yellow venom through the duct and hollow fangs into the bitten part.

A man who has often taken part in the exciting sport of rattler bagging says that to hunt sirccossfully requires a. party of throe persons—the tougmau, the bagman and the third man. The tongs are made of seasoned hickory about an inch thick, the neck where they cross and the staple inserted being about six inches from the business end. The snake, being in coil, keeps his little eyes fixed upon the approaching cud of the tongs, strikes, turns loose a little stream of his venom, and drops hack into coil. But the tongs continue to approach the snake until an arm is upon each side of the head, when suddenly the arm closes, the head is securely hold, and, if all goes well, the rattler has met its fate. Even here, however, it is essential ' that great care ho exorcised, since a single instance of negligence may bring disaster. The head of the 'snake being held hard and fast by the tongs, the wretch is raised from the ground, in which condition it will quietly hang, as if lifeless, but the instant the body is allowed to touch the ’earth, giving it any leverage, the squirming that follows is worth noticing. The snake does not seem to possess sufficient strength to raise its comparatively heavy body and embrace the tongs, and thus hanging limp it is raised above a wide open sack, into which it is dropped. The mouth is carefully closed and secured. It is fastened to the end of a polo and carried over the shoulder some three or four feet away from human flesh.