FIGHT TO THE DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20762, 3 January 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

FIGHT TO THE DEATH.

KING AND RATTLER SNAKES.

FIERCE BATTLE IN THE BUSH.

LOCKED IN DEADLY EMBRACE.

A diamond snake, lord of the rattler species, was dozing peacefully at the foot of a tree somewhere in South Carolina, says tho Herald's San Francisco correspondent. Life, at the moment, was very pleasant. Ho had dined on a bush-rat a month before, and ho was contentedly digesting his meal, and would do so for many months to come as he dined but once a year. This snake was a gentleman. He had no vices. He never "struck," except in self-defence. For the rattler always gives his strange and thrilling warning before he attacks, which is more than any other venomous snake in the world does. He spends most of his time in retirement. His wife is boss, and routs most of his natural enemies for him. There was reason for his contentment. He came of a stock, the " diamond," that was the largest, handsomest and most formidable of the venomous serpents of the Western Hemisphere. Tho bushmaster of South America may occasionally rival the lordly diamond in length, but not in bulk; the king cobra of India is the only other worthy to rank with him. The rattler's den is elaborately constructed, several feet below ground. There are tunnels and companionways,

and at least one long shelf where the master takes his substerranean siesta, the abode is frequently appropriated from some member of the rodent family. Yes, he was master of his kind. All created things went in dread of him —all but his fiercest foe, the king snake, which will pursue him by sofent, constrict - him and then swallow him. With a lithe, rocking motion of his head, forebody held high off the ground, the " king " moves swiftly through the forest, threading secret pathways with eerie assurance and the speed and alertness of the craftiest hunter.

A sudden rustling in the branches brought jack diamond to a posture of defence—too late. The ponderous coils of a king snake landed squarely. The battle was on. Two of the fiercest denizens of the forests were in a moment locked in a deadly embrace, exchanging grip for grip, fang for fang. A Ohance to Get Away. A group of hunters, finding them thus, hoisted them on poles, but the combatants paid no heed. Deposited on the road, they squirmed and rolled in the gravel, coiled as one, striking and restriking. It was a long time before the hunters could separate them. " Make them race for it," said one.

Lifting the rattler across the roadside ditch, they gave, him 'a chance to get away. They had to allow him half an hour, because the rattler is the mostdeliberate of all forest life in his movements. Then the " thunderbolt " was released.

" I shall never forgot," says the chronicler, " the absorbed and intelligent alacrity with which the king snake picked up tlie trail and followed it. We had difficulty keeping up with him. lie struck deep into the forest, where we lost him for a while. Eventually wc came on the combatants, again locked in the same deadly embrace. The second battle we did not terminate. Wc left them to it, knowing it would bavo but one. end, and that the right one."