Buzztail was nearly six feet long—a giant among timber rattlesnakes. He was an old snake and had lived near the same den for twelve years.

This vivid account of one year in the life of Buzztail conveys a wealth of information about the timber rattlesnake. Its diamond-shaped scales of different colors and its many rattles give it a distinctive appearance. Its three-quarter-inch fangs stab suddenly, like a hypodermic needle, injecting venom and providing a deadly method of attack. Once an animal is bitten, it cannot save itself, but human beings have learned what to do in such an emergency. In this story the startled Buzztail strikes a careless farm boy, and all the steps of taking care of a snake bite are described.

Like all Mr. McClung's natural-science books, this story of a rattlesnake is set against a living background whose fields and woods and changing seasons are described and pictured with imagination as well as realism.

From the book