Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/816

RATTLESNAKE. It is larger in the Southern States than northward, and occasion a lly reaches a length of five feet, with a diameter in that case of four to five inches. The ground-color above varies from bright tawny to dark brown. A light line runs from the mouth to the eve, with a dark patch below; and the body is marked with three rows of confluent irregular brown spots, forming about 21 zigzag crossbars. The head is oval in outline. This snake inhabits wooded regions, avoiding prairies. It is especially fond of rocky districts, and hence is most numerous among mountains, where it is inclined to gather in considerable numbers in certain holes and caverns in the autumn, in order to undergo the winter sleep in closely entwined companies. About nine young are born annually in mid-summer. The Southern States have a still larger species known as the ‘diamond rattlesnake’ (Crotalus adamanteus) on account of the rhomboidal black blotches, each perfect in all its angles, and edged with yellow, which ornament its yellowish body. This snake sometimes reaches, on the Mangrove Islands of western Florida, a length of eight feet, and has so great a thickness that large individuals may be regarded as the most bulky of all venomous snakes, for the Oriental cobras, although sometimes longer, are far more slender. The range of the diamond rattlesnake extends along the coast from North Carolina to Texas, and a variety ranges westward to Lower California. Two other similar and almost equally large and dreadful snakes are Crotalus molossus and basiliscus. Southern California also has a remarkable species (Crotalus ruber), which has an oblong head, and whose markings are deep red or sometimes chestnut, upon a paler reddish ground. The rattlesnake of the plains (Crotalus confluentus) is a light-colored, obscurely marked, rather small species. It is highly variable in form and color, and is the kind constantly found in prairie-dog towns. Several other species occur in the Rocky Mountain region and Northern Mexico, one of which (Crotalus cerastes) is the characteristic snake of the deserts of the valleys of the Rio Colorado and Gila, where the people call it ‘sidewinder,’ from its habit of progressing sidewise instead of in the usual way. It takes its specific name from the fact that the plates above the eyes are thickened into hornlike cones, sometimes of considerable height. It is not of large size, but is dangerous because of the virulence of its poison.

The small, active prairie rattlesnakes, now greatly reduced in number, differ sufficiently from the genus Crotalus to be set apart into the genus Sistrurus. One of them (Sistrurus miliarius) is the ground-rattler of the Southern States, too frequently met with in stubble fields and grassy places. A Northern congener is the black rattlesnake or ‘massasauga,’ once common between the Alleghany Mountains and the plains, but now nearly exterminated except on the frontier. This species (Sistrurus catenatus) may reach a length of 30 inches, and is brown, with a series of darker brown transverse spots on the back, beneath each of which is a small brown spot forming a linear series along the sides. Its rattle is small, but can be heard at a considerable distance, and its bite is likely to be exceedingly troublesome to men and domestic animals, although not often fatal. These snakes prefer low, wet ground, the draining of which by the spread

of farming operations has been the principal agency in their decrease.

Consult: Cope, Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes of North America (Washington, 1900); Stejneger, “Poisonous Reptiles of the United States,” in Annual Report United States National Museum for 1893 (Washington, 1895); Bumpus, Standard Natural History, vol. iii. (Boston, 1885); Stejneger, “Reptiles of Death Valley,” in North American Fauna, No. 7 (Agricultural Department, Washington, 1893). See and Plate of.  RATTLESNAKE PIKE. See.  RATTLEWING, or. The golden-eye duck. See.  RATZEBURG, , (1801-71). A German entomologist. He was born and educated in Berlin, where in 1828 he became privat-docent at the university. Two years afterwards, upon the removal of the Berlin Forestry School to Eberswalde, Ratzeburg became its professor of natural science. By his work there as a teacher and his publications, he ranks as the founder of the scientific treatment of entomology as related to forestry. Among his more important writings are: Die Forstinsekten (1837-44; 2d ed. 1885); Die Waldverderber und ihre Feinde (1842); Die Ichneumonen der Forstinsekten (1844); Waldverderbnis durch Insektenfrass (1866-68); some botanical treatises, and a Forstwissenschaftliches Schriftsteller-Lexikon, completed by Acherson and containing an autobiography (1874).  RATZEL,, (1844-1904). A German geographer and traveler, born at Karlsruhe, and educated in science at Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Jena, Berlin, and elsewhere. As correspondent of the Kölnische Zeitung he traveled in 1869 in Italy, Sicily, and Southern France, and in 1872-75 in the United States, Mexico, and Cuba. In 1876 he became professor of geography at the Polytechnic School of Munich, and in 1886 was appointed to a similar position at the University of Leipzig. Among his printed works are: Sein und Werden der organischen Welt (1868); Wandertage eines Naturforschers (1873-74); Vorgeschichte des europäischen Menschen (1875); Städte- und Kulturbilder aus Nordamerika (1876); Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika (1878-80); Die Erde, in 24 Vorträgen (1881); Völkerkunde (1895); and Die Erde und das Leben (18021902 [sic]). With Schweinfurth he edited Emin Pasha's letters of travel and reports (Leipzig, 1888).  RAU,, (1792-1870). A German economist, born at Erlangen. He studied at the University of Erlangen, where he became privat-docent in 1812, professor extraordinary in 1816, and in 1818 full professor of political economy. In 1822 he was called to the chair of political economy at Heidelberg University. His principal works are: Ueber das Zunftwesen und die Folgen seiner Aufhebung (1816); Grundriss der Kameralwissenschaft oder Wirtschaftslehre (1823); and Lehrbuch der politischen Oekonomie (1826-37). Rau was at first an adherent of the views of the earlier German economic writers, and defended the policy of the guild regulations and of mercantilism. In his Lehrbuch, which was long considered the classical German work on economies, he adopts the 