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CROTALUS . — Linnmus. 



Genus Crotalus. — Characters. Head large, triangular, rounded in front, 

 covered with plates anteriorly; vertex and occiput with scales; a deep pit between 

 the eye and nostril; upper jaw armed with poisonous fangs; body elongated, thick; 

 tail short and thick, terminating in a rattle, which is a corneous production of the 

 epidermis; plates on abdomen, and under the tail. 



CROTALUS MILIARIUS.*— Linnaeus. 

 Plate XV. 



Characters. Head large, triangular, rounded in front; covered anteriorly and 

 on the vertex with plates, posteriorly with scales; a pit between the eye and 

 nostril; upper jaw with poisonous fangs; body above dark gray, with a vertebral 

 row of subquadrate black spots, margined with yellow, and a double series of 

 black spots on each side, the upper larger, but less distinct. PI. 128; caud. pi. 30. 



Synonymes. Small rattlesnake, Catesb., Carol., vol. ii. p. 42, pi. xlii. 

 Crotalus miliarius, Lin., Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 372. 

 Le millet, Lac('p., Hist. Nat. des Serp., torn. ii. p. 242. 

 Crotalus miliarius, Gtnel., Syst. Nat. Lin., vol. i. part iii. p. 10S0. 

 Crotalus miliarius, Latr., Hist. Nat. des Rept, torn. iii. p. 203. 

 Crotalus miliarius, Daud., Hist. Nat. des Rept., torn. v. p. 328. 

 Crotalus miliarius, Hurl., Med. and Phys. Res., p. 134. 

 Causidona miliarius, Wag., Nat. Syst. der Amph., p. 17C. 

 Ground rattlesnake, Vulgo. 



* Catesby first described th is animal, and seemed to consider it as a young snake, yet his 

 name, Vipera caudisona, &c, cannot be retained either for this or the larger species, as I find 

 it previously applied to a South American animal; and further, it is now a generic name of 

 several excellent herpetologists. 

 Vol. II.— 10 



