125 



and even before it ceases to struggle. Sometimes lively mice would elude 

 two or three strokes, aud this would seem to throw the snake into an 

 ecstacy of excitement. They would not eat fishes. 



These snakes are greatly dreaded on account of their biting without 

 giving any warning. However, some warning they do sometimes attempt 

 to furnish. This i-t done by rattling on objects by quick vibrations of the 

 tail. Many species of snakes are now known to do this. Whether their 

 bright, dappled colors are intended to act as a warning to large animals 

 not to tread on them, or are to protect the snakes from the observation of 

 their prey as they lie among dead forest trees, is hard to decide. Mr. 

 Garman says that they do not yield to good treatment. Some that he 

 observed, though they were frequently and gently handled, remained 

 vicious and ready to bite. These snakes are very poisonous, but the 

 researches of Drs. Mitchell and Reichert show that their venom is less 

 virulent than that of the rattlesnakes, but more so than the water- 

 moccasin. While the introduction of the poison into the system produces 

 important changes in the appearance of the skin, due to changes in the 

 blood and blood-vessels, and though after recovery some of these appear- 

 ances might recur, yet the stories that the limb becomes spotted just 

 like the snake that did the biting, that it annually feels the bite and 

 regains such colors, are wholly absurd. 



As regards their breeding habits, the copperhead, so far as known, 

 produces living young. The number of young produced each year is 

 variously given. According to Professor J. A. Allen, five out of seven 

 females caught in the latter part of July, in Massachusetts, contained 

 slightly developed embryos, while of six females killed in September the 

 oviducts of each contained from seven to nine young six inches long. 

 The sexes, sometimes at least, pair in August. Other writers, principally, 

 however, through the newspapers, put the number of young as high as 

 60 to 80. This is undoubtedly an error, which probably arises from con- 

 founding the copperhead with other snakes, especially with the hog- 

 nosed snake, Heterodon lolatirhinos. This is another of the species 

 reported to Dr. Goode {SJ/., '73, 184) as furnishing to its young in times 

 of danger a retreat down its throat. 



Genus SISTRURUS, Gartnan. 



Ciotalophonis, Gray, 1825, 114, 205; Sistrurus, Garman, 1883, 13, 176. 

 Form short and stout. Tail short. Head with nine crown-shields, as 

 in the Coluhridce. Loral present. Tail furnished with a rattle. 



