'Go ahead - tread on me. I dare you.'

James Bailey kept a safe distance when he snapped this shot of a midget faded rattlesnake in an alcove at Sid's Mountain in the San Rafael Swell over the weekend. Crotalus oreganus concolor is small for a rattlesnake. This one was only a little over a foot long and the markings are fairly prominent, meaning it is a young one. Adults can reach two feet in length. C. concolor probably feels a loss of self-esteem about being called 'midget,' so it has developed what may be the most toxic venom of the Western Rattlesnakes.