420 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



mens from moist localities appear much darker, often quite blackish 

 with large si)ots, while in those from more arid districts the grouud 

 color is much paler, and the markings more restricted. There is also a 

 certain amount of variation with regard to the red dorsal stripe, which 

 seems to be wanting in tlie young. 



Geographical distribution. — Holbrook asserts that on the Atlantic 

 coast this species does not occur north of the thirty-fifth iiarallel, and 

 I am aware of no later record which contradicts this. In fact, the most 

 northerly record I have been able to find seems to be that of Drs. 

 Cones and Yarrow (Proc. Phila. Acad., 1878, \). 20) from the neighbor- 

 hood of Fort Macon in North Carolina, a little south of the- latitude 

 mentioned. They write that a few individuals are said to have been 

 seen on Bogue banks; none, however, observed or secured by them; 

 but thafthey are quite common on Shackleford banks, a few miles from 

 Fort Macon, and that it has also been taken on the mainland. The 

 ground rattler is found south of this point along the coasts of North 

 Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In the latter State it 

 is distributed all over the peninsula and along the Gulf coast to Ala- 

 bama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. It ascends the Mississippi River 

 Valley and the valleys of its southern tributaries, but curiously enough 

 seems to be more common on the western side of the great river, being 

 apparently common in Arkansas and Indian Territory even as far west 

 as central Oklahoma, whence the National Museum has a young speci- 

 men collected by Dr. Edward Palmer at Old Fort Cobb. 



In Texas Prof Cope has recorded it as occurring at Dallas; Mr. 

 Eagsdale has collected it in Cooke County, and Capt. Pope brought a 

 specimen (No. 4JM) home from the head waters of the Colorado Eiver, 

 at about the one hundred and first meridian. On the coast .of Texas 

 Mr. Garmau has recently recorded it (Bull. Essex Inst., xxiv, 181>2) 

 from Matagorda County. 



Habits. — The Ground Battler appears to prefer dry ground, and Hol- 

 brook states that it is found among leaves, and frequently in high grass 

 in search of small field mice, on which it feeds. 



The only observation about its breeding habits of which I am aware 

 is a note by Prof F. W. Putnam in the American Naturalist (Vol. ii, 

 1808, p. 131) that he had once dissected a specimen having 14 eggs, all 

 with embryos two inches in length in the oviduct. 



According to Holbrook the common jieople dread the ground rattler 

 and consider it much more destructive than the Banded Eattlesnake, 

 both on account of its greater aggressiveness, tlie scant warning its 

 faint rattling aftbrds, and the supposed greater activity of its venom. 

 He, however, satisfied himself by experiments of the fallacy of the 

 alleged greater virulence of its poison, for while he found it sufficient 

 to kill small birds, or field mice, repeated bites failed to affect a cat 

 beyond causing it to droop for thirty- six hours, at the end of which 

 time the effects of the poison entirely disappeared. 



While thus the bite of these small snakes maybe attended with com- 



