CROTALUSADAMANTEUS. 79 



abounds too in East Florida, but westward beyond that I have no evidence of its 

 existence. 



General Remarks. The Crotalus adamanteus is the largest of our rattlesnakes, 

 reaching even to the length of eight feet. The individual from which the accom- 

 panying plate was taken, had reached the length of nearly six feet, and I have 

 seen others over seven feet long; a more disgusting and terrific animal cannot be 

 imagined than this; its dusky colour, bloated body, and sinister eyes of sparkling 

 grey and yellow, with the projecting orbital plates, combine to form an expression 

 of sullen ferocity unsurpassed in the brute creation. 



Palisot de Beauvais was the first to separate this from the Crotalus durissus, 

 and to give it the name that has here been retained. 



Latreille next speaks of this animal, from a skin procured in Carolina and given 

 him by Bosc. At first he seems to consider it a new species under the name 

 of Crotalus rhombifer, but he ends by saying it is identical with the Crotalus 

 horridus. 



To Daudin belongs the merit of having first fully and accurately described the 

 animal now under consideration. Beauvais's description, though separating this 

 species from the banded rattlesnake, must amount to no more than "indications 

 for the establishment of a new species." Daudin's account of the animal is very 

 accurate, and was taken from the skin of one four feet six inches in length, found 

 by Bosc in the United States. 



It is not a little remarkable, that after so correct a description and such 

 judicious remarks as those of Daudin, this animal should still have been over- 

 looked, not only by European, but by American naturalists. This can only be 

 accounted for by supposing it confounded with the Crotalus horridus, to which 

 its colour, on a superficial examination, appears somewhat similar; but, observed 

 attentively, there will be found enough even in this to distinguish the two animals. 



