Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses Page: 13
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TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 13
ago. I)tDuritng no outing with a
number(, of ftrienils last fall along
the S:an Ant.nio 1{iver, below San
AltI0nio, one of our larty, whilst
getting readtv to put his fishing
line into t h , I e w:teir, was surprised
iv a rustlingt t aong the leaves and
and un ,) "los"r search, onc ofthe multi-colored kingsnakes wit s
seen battling with another variety
of prairie snake. It had the other
snake in its mouth, and had
nearly entirely swallowed it. At
another outing, near the same
fishing place about a mile below
the Mission lspada, we came across
a very large kingsnake, which had
in its mouth and throat a young
kingsnake, and we were in doubt
whether this latter instance was
a case of protection of its offspring,
or, as with the other specimen,
a case of cannibalism. Both of
these snakes were photographed,
and one of the views is the second
one (,n the lower row seen in the
miniature lhoto collection. Dur-
ing that same (lay of our out-
ing, whilst getting a bucket of
water front a spring close to a
ravine near the river, I nmet a
moccasin abocuit one and a half
feet long in my path, rand the
snake at o(nce showIed fight by
thrustingt its headl upward with
wid e-opoin touthi. This genuine
iioceasit of tle "cotton-mouth"
variety, when first seen was of
unusual thickness, :andl therefore
I was the iuore anxious to kill
it, to note what it hadt swallowed.
\WitlI a stick :ind heatvv blow, I
nearly severC t its head from its
bolyl, and bringing it on a forkedstick to camp, we all guessed what
it might have in its stomach,
some guessed it was a frog, others
said it was a toad, and a lady
naturalist of our party suggested
a rat. ()n opening its abdomen,
we inimediately saw that our lady
naturalist had guessed correctly,
for it contained a full-size water-
rat. The photo in the second last
row, shows the same small moc-
casin with the rat exposed in its
stomach. Near the neck-part of
the snake, which was split open
from the severe blow, the photo
shows the tail of the rat protruding
outside.
As to the various types of the
Texas tarantula spider, much su-
perstition and ignorance still exists.
As a rule, they are quite as harmless
as many other poisonous animals,
if not annoyed or incidentally
touched. A detailed account of our
Texas prairie spiders has been pub-
lished some years ago by the writer
in Texas Field, which will be found
on the following pages. The small j et
black and reddish-striped jumping
tarantula, encountered occasionally
in gardens and forests, is about the
most dangerous type to be encoun-
tered, and the writer could cite sev-
eral serious but not fatal, cases of
venom-inoculation from these in-
sects. One large type of tarantula,
rarely met with in these clays
in inhabited places, but occasionally
encountered in open prairies, where
they sometimes move in large
colonies, is seen depicted in the
third row of the collection. This
same huge tarantula was captured
by Private A. F. Denton, U. S.
Army, in camp near Fort McIn-
tosh, Texas, and Mr. Denton sent
the animal alive to San Antonio,
where pictures of same were taken
h>v W -m. Stuck, Dr. A. Lange,
\"eterinarv Surtgeon, and myself,
and I sublmit one of the photos on
page 15 showing the monster tar-
atntula ill front of the rat it killed.
(The photo beingg taken in the
sunlight through the glass panel
of the box at close range). In
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Menger, R. Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses, book, 1913; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143558/m1/17/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.