POISONOUS SNAKES OF NORTH AMERICA. 429 



the yellow scales external to the blotches are of a lighter color than 

 the rest. 



Number of veutrals (j;astrosteges), 106; of subcaiulals (urosteges), 25; 

 dorsal scale rows, 23. 



Total length, 42 inches; tail, 5 inches. 



Variation. — There is considerable individual variation, both in 

 scutelhition of the head and the ground color of the body. 



The variation in the scutellation on top of the head is especially 

 marked with regard to the prefrontals and the scales covering the can- 

 thus rostralis. Normally the large plates consist of 2 internasals, 2 

 supraoculars, and between these, on each side, a large shield, the pre- 

 frontals usually being small scales like those covering the rest of the 

 head. In two of our specimens, however (Nos. 277 and 12748), there 

 are a^iair of large prefrontals following the internasals, while in Nos. 

 277 and 248 there are 2 scutes l^etween the iuternasal and the supra- 

 ocular on each side instead of 1. 



The ground color varies greatly from light yellowish and light red- 

 dish gray through brown to almost black in some instances. In old 

 specimens the tail is generally uniform black, but in the young ones it 

 is banded light and black. In many specimens from localities in the 

 Alleghany Mountains, with a moist climate, this black of the tail and 

 sometimes even of the entire posterior half of the body is often of a deep 

 velvety gloss. 



In the majority of the Western specimens there is a broad, ill-detined, 

 but very distinct, ochraceous baud running down the center of the 

 back. Most of them also have the postocular dark band darker and 

 better defined than Eastern specimens; but I have been unable, with 

 my material, to draw any line sufiliciently constant. 



Geographical distribution. — In former times the Banded Eattlesnake, 

 or "Timber Eattlesnake,'' as it is often called in regions where other 

 species also occur, was commonly distributed in suitable localities all 

 over the eastern United States, except the peninsula of Florida, as far 

 west as the subarid portion of the Great Plains, but they have now 

 become exterminated or nearly so, in many localities, having been 

 driven back to the wilderness by the advancing cultivation of the 

 country. 



Prof. Yerrill (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., ix, 1868, p. 197), speaking 

 of the reptiles of Norway, Me., states that it is rare, and only found in 

 Albany and Paymond; he had never detected it east of the Androscog- 

 gin Eiver. In Massachusetts, according to Allen (Proc. Boston Soc. 

 Nat. Hist.. XII, 1868, p. 179), it is not unfrequent on ]Mount Tom, and 

 occasionally killed on rocky hills in several of the towns near or adjoin- 

 ing Springfield; it a-lso occurs at a few similar localities in the eastern 

 part 01 the State. 



In 1886 Prof. A. S. Packard had an article in the American Natu- 

 rahston " The Eattlesnake in New England" (Vol. xx, pp. 736-737) from 

 which I quote the following: 



