1 84 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



several occasions sent specimens to our Zoological 

 Gardens, informs me that it is of the utmost importance 

 not to handle the snake, as it has a trick of twisting 

 itself, when held, in such a manner as to injure its 

 vertebras. Mr. Mole wrote to me : " One snake died 

 in my hands in this way, and I have noticed that when 

 handled that their backs make a cracking noise, after 

 which they invariably die. All the snake-catchers recog- 

 nize this fact, and tell stories of the snake having died on 

 being caught." 



The Bushmaster, like the Night Adder, and two other 

 viperine snakes, Lachesis monticola and Atractaspis irregu- 

 laris, is oviparous. Mr. Mole, to whom this discovery is 

 due, says that the eggs are larger than a duck's, and are 

 protected by the female, who coils herself round them until 

 they are hatched. 



The snakes of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus, which 

 inhabit America, from Southern Canada and British 

 Columbia to Brazil and Argentina, are popularly known 

 as Rattlesnakes, their tails terminating in a segmented, 

 sound-producing apparatus. The perfect " rattle " in 

 Crotalus is composed of about a dozen loosely connected 

 horny segments, which are filled with air, and which, when 

 shaken, as is the case when these snakes are annoyed or 

 alarmed (the reptiles rolling themselves up into a ball with 

 the vibrating tail standing up in the centre), produce the 

 familiar rattling sounds. The " rattle " in newly born 

 snakes is represented by only a button-like horny covering 

 to the tip of the tail, the subsequent segments being 

 formed, one at a time, with each shedding of the skin. 

 To tell the precise age of the snake by the numbers of 



