16 CROTALOPHORUS. 



5. CrotalophorilS Kirtlsiudii, Holbr. — Twenty-five rows of dor- 

 sal scales, sometimes only twenty-four, all strongly carinated except those 

 of the first lateral row. Vertical plate rather short and broad. Color in 

 the adult almost uniformly black, with a vertebral series of dusky brown 

 blotches, sometimes very obsolete. Underneath bluish slate, with the pos- 

 terior margin of the scutellee yellowish. 



Syk. Crotalophorus Eirtlandii, Holbr. N. Amer. Hei'p. Ill, 1842, 31, 

 n. vi. 



Black Massasauga. 



The scales of the lateral row are as broad or high as long. Those 

 of the second row are but slightly carinated, and distinguished from 

 the nest rows above in being broader and regularly elliptical poste- 

 riorly. The carinated scales are elongated, and the narrowest as they 

 approximate the dorsal region. They are posteriorly rounded or 

 subacute. 



In the young, eight inches and. a half long, the ground-color is 

 brown, with a dorsal series of deep brown spots transversely oblong, 

 emarginated anteriorly and posteriorly, almost quadrangular on the 

 posterior region of the body and tail; and thirty-four in number from 

 head to tail. There are three lateral series of blotches on each side j 

 the upper one composed of small and obsolete blotches, alternating 

 with the dorsal ones ; the second row is composed of vertically oblong 

 blotches, larger than those of the upper, and a little smaller than 

 those of the lower series. The latter extend partly on the abdominal 

 scutellee, as in C. tergeminus and other allied species. Six or seven 

 rings to the rattle. 



Warren Co., Ohio. 140.21+5.24. 23|. 2 J. Dr. J. P. Kirtland. 

 " 144.19+5.23. 24t. 2i « 



" 142.17+3.25. 25. 2|. " 



« 143.15+9.25. 8^. |. « 



