30 SERPENTS OF THE NORTHEASTERN STATES 



rodents, birds and frogs. During the summer it is often seen along 

 old stone walls which might offer shelter and a congregating place 

 for rodents. With the autumn it returns to specific crevices among 

 the rocks to hibernate, and it is close to such locations that the young 

 are born during August or early September. From six to nine young 

 are produced in a litter. The tails of the infant snakes are bright, 

 sulphur yellow. 



General range: Central Massachusetts to northern Florida; west- 

 ward to Texas. 



Massasauga 



Sistrurus catenatus catenatus (Rafinesque) 



(Fig. 28) 



The massasauga might be regarded as somewhat of an intruder 

 among the local serpents, as it is essentially a western species and 

 is found only in a limited area in western New York. It is a small 

 rattlesnake which may be easily distinguished from the widely dis- 

 tributed timber rattlesnake by the large and symmetrically arranged 

 plates on the top of its head — quite similar to the head plates of a 

 harmless serpent. Its rattle, of course, provides a point for imme- 

 diate identification. The ground color is brown or grayish, with a 

 series of chestnut-brown, symmetrical, oval blotches on the back, be- 

 coming darker toward the edge and narrowly outlined with a paler 

 hue. There is a smaller row of rounded blotches on each side. The 

 usual length of the massasauga is from two to three feet. 



Mr. Edward T. Whiffen, who has been much interested in the 

 occurrence of this reptile in New York State, has written about it in 

 the New York Zoological Society Bulletin 1 as follows: 



"The massasauga, a species of dwarf rattlesnake, is still to be 

 found in New York State, in and around Cicero Swamp, which, with 

 some interruptions, stretches across the northern parts of Onondaga 

 and Madison Counties, between Oneida and Onondaga Lakes. The 

 main swamp is said to be fourteen miles long and seven miles wide 

 in its greatest extent. It consists of the swamp proper, in which are 

 numerous 'islands,' or higher areas of land. Next to the dry land 

 is the 'shore,' a wet, marshy strip, from seventy-five to one hundred 

 yards wide. Beyond the 'shore' is the swampy land proper, fairly 

 dry in summer and covered by a dense growth of trees, bushes, ferns 

 and moss. In some places this moss is knee-deep. Many of the bushes 

 are of the huckleberry variety, and it is among these that the mas- 

 sasauga is frequently seen in August and September, when berry- 

 pickers go out into the swamp. 



1 Vol. XVI, No. 55. 



