Copperheads & Cottonmouths

Plate 1. Abandoned Ozark barnyard, Taney County, Missouri. Nightfall by Joshua Heston Night falls. The air is warm in the darkness. Overgrown meadows and abandoned farmyards come alive, first with insects, then vermin. Mice. Voles. Shrews. Rats. All hurrying to eat, to store, to prepare for the onrushing winter that — deep within their genetic…