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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM .JOURNAL 



striking distance. When a rattler or copper- 

 head does strike however, it sometimes not 

 only makes a simple strike with its fangs 

 but also grips its jaws together and tries to 

 wrestle its fangs deeper into the object struck 

 so as to cause a better mjection of its venom. 

 On one of my trips to the Wallkill-Hamburg 

 Mountains of New Jersey while I was stand- 

 ing at the edge of the top of a small cliff about 

 forty feet high, I discovered two rattlers, 

 male and female, lying near each other at 

 the bottom. By retracing my steps about 

 eighty yards, I was able to work a way to 



the foot of the cliff, then after fixing up the 

 snake bag in nearby bushes, I advanced to 

 where the rattlers were, meanwhile lightly 

 beating the low berry bushes ahead of me 

 with my stick so that I might not accidentally 

 step on any hidden snakes. When I came up 

 to the two snakes the yellow-phased one 

 (female) slowly crawled away directly to the 

 rear of the black one (male, supposedly), 

 which went into a coil, head toward me and 

 waited. Neither snake rattled although I 

 was then standing within four or five feet of 

 them,- and had beaten the bushes close to 



Pilot or riiounluiii hiack snake (Coliiltcr ohsolelns) and Iho more abuiidaiil common black snake or racer {Ras- 

 caiiion constriclor). The pilot, can be distinguished from the racer by its broad head, keeled scales and white spots 

 on the margin of the scales as well as by its slow movement, its good nature and its great power as a constrictor 

 The pilot is, next to the indigo and pine snakes, the largest harmless snake in the United States 



