90 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



seize it by the tail or other part tliau tlie head, for it is always dragged 

 out again before being absorbed. In ease it has not been tirst seized 

 b}' the nose it is again released and seized by the nose and I have never 

 yet seen a massasanga swallow a mouse in any other way than by com- 

 mencing at the nose. 



The massasanga according to my observations, must kill its own 

 prey. I have tried mice killed by the cat, often; not a bit of use. I 

 once took a living but injured mouse from the cat and presented it. 

 The snake noticed it, transiently only, and the mouse speedily dying 

 was ignoi'ed. Yet a living one introduced directly after was speedily 

 accounted for. I have not noticed any of my rattlers take more than 

 tw^o mice consecutively. As a contrast to this, a striped snake in an 

 adjoining cage, no bulkier than my largest massasanga, though longer, 

 took eight half grown frogs one after the other as fast as it could 

 swallow tliem, and from its attitude was ready for more. The frogs 

 W'ere Rana pipiens. What was very interesting to me was the way 

 the Sistrurus drinks. As often as not, after absorbing a mouse, the 

 snake goes to the little water tank and lowering its head until witMn 

 a half inch of the water, commences to lap, exactly after the manner 

 of a cat. The tongue is protruded and drawn back at regular, rather 

 slow intervals, three or four seconds between each lap. I have known 

 them to keep lapping for a couple of minutes in this leisurely w^ay; it is 

 also interesting to see the jaws stretched wide apart two or three times, 

 with a kind of yawning movement and giving a good view of the internal 

 structure of the palate' and adjacent parts; also the erected fangs. (The 

 fangs are always erect when the mouth is open.) 



On August 7th, last year, six young were born to a pair of my rattle- 

 snakes and a few days after six more to another pair. These little 

 fellows had all shed their skins within a w^eek of their birth and at the 

 time I put them down in the cellar to hybernate, had about doubled 

 in size. So far as 1 have been able to determine, the massasanga, when 

 not a baby of the year, sheds its skin twice annually; in May and in July. 

 The change appears to be pretty regular. The, dates of one of mine in a 

 separate cage are July 28, 1895; May 23, 1896 and July 29, 1896. I shall 

 keep this individual one's time this season. 



With regard to the rattles, I have give up trying to find anything 

 further. The one I have had longest, had six pairs when I first took it; 

 it got another pair the same year and has remained in statu quo ever 

 since so far as tail goes, although it has grown prodigiously otherwise. 



One thing is rather mysterious to me, I allude to the manner in which 

 the young subsist and grow so rapidly. Mine certainly have not had 

 any nourishment. The mice are always swallowed by the parents. Of 

 this I am positive, and furthermore if they are not, I remove them, for 

 I never allow a mouse to remain in the box unswallowed, dead or alive, 

 I see them absorbed or I take them out. I have seen the young of H. 

 platyrhinus and S, natrix take refuge in the parent's throat. I wonder 

 if this is only done in case of alarm, or whether there may be something 

 in the theory I have, that they may derive nourishment from the old 

 ones in this manner. I tried my best to induce these young snakes to 

 exhibit this trait to me, but without success. I hope to be able to secure 

 an instantaneous photograph. 



