SERPENTS OF THE NORTHEASTERN STATES 31 



"The massasauga seems to like the neighborhood of swamps, 

 though it shuns the actually wet places. In the harvest season it 

 is usually found either in the hay-fields or oat-lots, or it may be 

 seen out on the moss among the bushes, or under the evergreen trees. 

 However, it may occur almost anywhere. A gentlman told me that 

 two years ago he found a large massasauga in his wood-pile, about 

 six feet from the house. Others reported having found the snake in 

 their cellars, or under the steps. There is an abundance of frogs and 

 mice in the meadows, and frogs and birds in the swamp, and such 

 conditions account for the presence of the reptile in those places. In 

 the hay-field the massasauga seems to select the damper spots, where 

 the growth of vegetation is heaviest. There it is frequently cut in 

 two by the knives of the mowing-machines. Newly cleared fields, where 

 there are plenty of stumps and berry bushes, are also favorite lurking 

 places of this reptile, which is sometimes seen sunning itself on a 

 stump, or lying coiled among the bushes. 



"Older residents assured me that the snake is much less common 

 than formerly, when its range extended over the entire northern part 

 of the county. Its disappearance is due probably to ceaseless slaughter 

 and to the draining of the swamps. That it is still fairly common 

 may be judged from the fact that the killing of a dozen snakes in an 

 area of perhaps a hundred acres was reported within the space of two 

 weeks' time. One of these snakes had sixteen rattles and two had 

 ten. Six or eight was a common number. The whole region is abund- 

 antly supplied with reptile life, milk snakes, ribbon snakes, garter 

 snakes, water snakes, etc., being of frequent occurrence. As much of 

 the swamp has little value for tillage purposes, and as the timber is 

 small and comparatively worthless, the massasauga, though in dimin- 

 ishing numbers, will probably continue to be found in the region 

 for some time." 



General range: Western New York to Nebraska; northward into 

 Michigan and Ontario; southward to Kansas. A subspecies, S. catena- 

 tus edivardsii, ranges from Oklahoma into Mexico. 



Timber Rattlesnake 



(Banded Rattlesnake) 



Crotalus horridus (Linne) 



(Figs. 29, 30) 



In pattern and colors, this species presents great variation. The 

 most familiar phase is that of sulphur yellow or pale tan ground-color, 

 with wide, dark brown or black cross bands, usually wavy or pointed to 

 the rear, and sometimes broken into three series of blotches, the cen- 

 tral or larger ones being rather rhomb-like. The tail is black. 



