CROTALUS ADAMANTEUS. 19 



Geographical Distribution. Its range seems very limited; as hitlierto it lias 

 never been found north of Carolina, where it is common on the sea-board; it 

 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 Rattle- 

 snakes, reaching even to the length of eight feet. The individual from which the 

 accompanying 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, combme to form an 

 expression of sullen ferocity unsurpassed in the brute creation. 



Palisot de Beauvais was the first who distinguished this serpent from the 

 Crotalus durissus, and gave it the name, which has here been retained. 



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

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

 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 they confounded it with the Crotalus horridus, to which 



