76 CEOTALUS MILIARIUS. 



General Remarks. This animal was first made known to naturalists by Catesby, 

 whose figure of it is but tolerable. Linnaeus received a specimen from Dr. Garden, 

 and gave it a place in his twelfth and last edition of the Systema Naturae, under 

 the name Crotalus miliarius, which it bears to this day. 



The Crotalus miliarius is greatly dreaded, as it gives but a very slight warning 

 with its rattle; and unlike the Crotalus durissus, will frequently be the aggressor. By 

 the common people its bite is thought to be more destructive, and its venom more 

 active than that of the larger species: various experiments have, however, satisfied 

 me of the fallacy of this opinion. It is probable that each Crotalus has the requisite 

 quantity of venom to destroy the animals on which it preys, for it is certain that 

 the miliarius can easily kill a small bird, such as the towhee bunting, a pigeon, or 

 a field mouse; but a cat that was bitten several times, at different intervals, 

 appeared to suffer much, and to droop for thirty-six hours, at the end of which 

 time the effects of the poison entirely disappeared; the same animal was long 

 afterwards destroyed by a single blow of the Crotalus durissus. 



Catesby's observation of this animal is very correct: "the bite of this snake is 

 poisonous, but it being small is not always mortal." This species makes a good 

 transition from the genus Crotalus to that of the Trigonocephalus, having the 

 plates on the head of the one and the rattles at the tail of the other. It is this 

 arrangement of plates on the head that led Fitzinger to establish his genus Caudi- 

 sonia, and Gray his Crotalophorus. This animal seems to be closely allied by 

 the disposition of its colours to the Crotalus tergiminus of Say, which he describes 

 as frequenting the villages of the prairie dogs of Missouri; yet I am not at this 

 time disposed to consider them as identical. 



