To American plainsmen, the non-aggressive temper of the rattlesnake is well known, and it is also a positive asset. I never knew one who was nervously afraid while sleeping in the open that snakes would come and crawl into his bed, or mix up with his camp. Of course all frontiersmen kill rattlers, as a sort of bounden duty to society, but I once knew an eastern man to turn loose a rattlesnake that he had photographed, in the observance of his principle never to kill an animal whose picture he had taken. Subsequently it was gravely reported that one of the restive horses of the outfit had "accidentally" killed that rattler by stepping upon it. A Summary of Poisonous Snakes. There are about 300,000 poisonous snakes in the United States, and 110,000,000 people for them to bite; but more people are bitten by captive snakes than by wild ones. A fool and his snake are soon parted. There are 200,000 rattlesnakes in our country, but all of them will let you alone if you will let them alone. If your police record is clear, you can sleep safely in the sage- brush. If ever you need to camp in a cave, remember that in warm weather the rattlesnakes are all out hunting, and will not return until the approach of winter. The largest snakes of the world exist only in the human mind. The rattlesnake is a world-beater at minding his own business. Men do far more fighting per capita than any snakes yet discovered. The road to an understanding of the minds of serpents is long and difficult. Perhaps the best initial line of approach is through a well-stocked Reptile House. Having studied somewhat in that school I have emerged with a fixed belief that of all vertebrate creatures, snakes are the least understood, and also the most thoroughly misunderstood. [Illustration: A PEACE CONFERENCE WITH AN ARIZONA RATTLESNAKE "You let me alone and I won't harm you" (From "Camp-Fires on Desert and Lava")] [Illustration: HAWK-PROOF NEST OF A CACTUS WREN Placed in the centre of a tree choya cactus of Arizona and defended by 10 000 hostile spines (From "Camp-Fires on Desert and Lava")] The world at large debits serpents with being far more quarrelsome and aggressive than they really are, and it credits them with knowing far less than they do know. Attitude of Snakes Toward Each Other. Toward each other, the members of the various serpent species are tolerant, patient and peaceful to the last degree. You may place together in one cage twenty big Texas rattlers, or twenty ugly cottonmouth moccasins from the Carolinas, a hundred garter snakes, twenty boa constrictors, or six big pythons, and if the various _species_ are kept separate there will be no fighting. You may stir them up to any reasonable extent, and make them keen to strike you, but they do not attack each other.