SERPENTS OF THE NORTHEASTERN STATES 33 



be commonly noted during the haying season, attracted by the presence 

 of large numbers of field mice. 



While a very dangerous snake from the standpoint of its large 

 fangs and the amount of venom it is able to inject at a bite, the 

 northern rattlesnake is a rather inoffensive reptile as compared with 

 its larger allies in the southern States. It almost invariably gives 

 warning of its presence by sounding the rattle, if disturbed when out 

 of immediate contact with a sheltering crevice. If closely approached, 

 it will strike, but the full striking distance of the average specimen is 

 barely eighteen inches — and usually shorter. There are records of 

 fatalities from the bite of this species, but generally considered, in 

 the northeastern portion of its range, there is a surprisingly small 

 number reported, less than with the copperhead, which gives no warn- 

 ing of its presence. In an area of the southern Berkshires, where 

 rattlesnakes are particularly frequent, the writer has records of but 

 three bites during a period of about twenty years. One of these was 

 fatal. 



Distribution is general in the wilder, hilly country, with the ex- 

 ception of the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains. As far as we are 

 aware, no rattlesnake has ever been recorded from the Adirondack 

 Mountains proper, although the species is quite common on Tongue 

 and Black Mountains, in the vicinity of Lake George. Likewise, the 

 only recent Catskill records come from Tremper Mountain, at the edge 

 of the Catskills, near Phoenicia, New York. The species is abundant 

 in the Ramapos, the Kittatinnies of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 

 and the Swangunk range in New York. Curiously enough, while rattle- 

 snakes are common on the high ridge of the mountains west of the 

 Housatonic River and across from Kent, Connecticut, they are seldom 

 recorded on the easterly side of the river in this area. They are 

 abundant in the southerly Berkshires and on the hills a few miles 

 south of Hartford, Connecticut. 



In central New Jersey the snake occurs under conditions rather 

 curious for a mountain type. There is considerable flat, forested 

 country back of the central coast, quite damp in spots and with large 

 sections covered with heavy sphagnum moss. In these locations, the 

 species attains a larger average size than the mountain type and may 

 exhibit a slightly different coloration: grayish, with strongly con- 

 trasted black bands and a faint, rusty, dorsal stripe, several scales 

 wide. There is a resemblance to the southern race known as the cane- 

 brake rattlesnake, which in the costal area of the southeast and the 

 lower Mississippi Valley frequently attains a length of close to eight 

 feet and has a distinct reddish band along the back. 



Rattlesnakes are extremely rare in the State of Maine, and that 

 area is thus unique among all the States in the virtual absence of 

 poisonous serpents. The Boston Society of Natural History has been 

 unable to obtain a record specimen from Maine for its collection. 



