Note 52 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
The celebrated botanist Schleiden incidently remarks (‘Ueber den Darwinismus: Unsere Zeit,’ 1869, s. 269), that Rattle-snakes use their rattles as a sexual call, by which the two sexes find each other. I do not know whether this suggestion rests on any direct observations. These snakes pair in the Zoological Gardens, but the keepers have never observed that they use their rattles at this season more than at any other.