12 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



interesting reptile in North America. The Arizona snakes 

 are many of them of very pretty species. I saw a number 

 of the smaller non-venomous species, but I did not disturb 

 them. July 24, while taking a walk of eight miles, from one 

 canyon to another, I was caught in a cloudburst. The rain 

 came down in sheets. I opened my collecting umbrella and 

 crouched under a leaning tree, but soon found my pockets 

 were full of water, though I managed to keep my insect 

 specimens fairly dry. When near camp on the way back, 

 I came across some snakes that had evidently been drowned 

 out and seemed to be travelling for higher ground. One 

 large rattlesnake crossing the trail tempted me to drop a 

 a huge rock on its head. These reptiles seemed to be as 

 uncomfortable as I was. The creek beds, usually dry, were 

 raging torrents and large rocks and boulders went rolling 

 and grinding down, propelled by the resistless current. 

 I saw a specimen of a curious little rattlesnake, very small, 

 though adult, killed by a miner. I had previously killed 

 another in Grant County, New Mexico, July 4, 1915. 

 When I had my light out in the evenings collecting beetles, 

 a small toad came out of a hole in the cabin wall, hopped 

 over to my paper and took up a position near my light. 

 At intervals it would snap up a beetle. When it swallowed 

 a Cyclocephala or Listrochelus, it was very amusing to watch 

 its expression and see it roll its eyes, turn and twist, and 

 scratch at its sides with its feet, as the victim in its stomach 

 endeavored to get out. One evening I kept count and it 

 devoured eighteen beetles, none smaller than Diplotaxis. 

 By midnight it was filled up and retired to its hole between 

 the rocks in the cabin wall. Each evening, when this toad 

 emerged from its hole, it would be flat and thin, but when 

 it retired, it was swelled to aldermanic proportions, so much 

 so that it was with difficulty it could squeeze into its hole. 

 Finally it failed to reappear and I saw it no more. Either 

 the abnormally abundant diet brought by my light was too 

 much for it, or some snake made a meal of it. 



