358 REPTILES OF THE WORLD 



One of the most beautiful of the North American 

 rattlesnakes occurs in the eastern portion of the United 

 States from Vermont to northern Florida. This is the 

 Timber or Banded Rattlesnake, C. horridus. In the 

 North the majority of the males are black, and some of 

 them are so intensely black the entire upper surface 

 is without a suggestion of transverse bands, looking 

 precisely like velvet. The females, to the contrary, are 

 a beautiful sulphur yellow, ornamented with irregular 

 brown or black transverse bands. Sometimes these 

 bands assume the form of a chain of rhomb-like mark- 

 ings. A freshly-shed specimen is wonderful in the 

 richness of its tints and no matter how strong may be 

 the prejudice, few can fail to appreciate Nature's gen- 

 erosity in the distribution of her colors. Although this 

 peculiar color characteristic of the Banded Rattlesnake 

 is very constant, it sometimes happens that in New 

 York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the neighboring 

 states, black females are occasionally found. The 

 writer has, however, never examined a yellow male 

 from the district given. In the South, where the sur- 

 roundings are quite different, the species assumes an 

 entirely different phase — pinkish, with sooty black 

 bands and a rusty red stripe on the back; this variety 

 lives along the coastal region and is called the Cane- 

 Brake Rattlesnake. The northern phase is essentially 

 a mountain snake, haunting the immediate vicinity of 

 ledges. 



Our last species is a curious little snake of the deserts 

 of the southwestern United States, the Horned Rat- 

 tlesnake or Sidewinder, C. cerastes. Its length is 

 seldom more than a yard. Over each eye is a blunt, 

 upright horn. The coloration is in keeping with a 



