98 CROTALOPHORUS MILIARIUS. 
~ 
GuocrapnicaL Distrisution. ‘This animal has a wide range, though in the 
Atlantic States it is not found north of lat. 35°; it abounds in Carolina, whence it 
passes through Georgia, round the southern extremities of the Alleghanies to 
Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. 
GeneraL Remarks. This serpent was first made known to naturalists by 
Catesby, whose figure of it is but tolerable. He seems to have considered it as a 
young animal, yet his name (Vipera caudisona) cannot be retained, either for this 
or the larger species, as I find it previously applied to a South American reptile; 
and further, it is now a generic name of several excellent herpetologists. Lin- 
neus received a specimen from Dr. Garden, and gave it a place in his twelfth and 
last edition of the Systema Nature, under the name Crotalus miliarius, which it 
bears to this day. 
The Crotalophorus miliarius is greatly dreaded, as it gives but a very slight 
warning with its rattle, and, unlike the Crotalus durissus, will frequently be the 
ageressor. By the common people its bite is thought to be more destructive, and 
its venom more active, than that of the larger species; various experiments have, 
however, satisfied me of the fallacy of this opinion. It is probable that each of 
these serpents has the requisite quantity of venom to destroy the animals on 
which it preys, for it is certain that the Crotalophorus miliarius can easily kill a 
small bird, such as the towhee bunting, a pigeon, or a field-mouse; but a cat that 
was bitten several times, at different intervals, appeared to suffer much, and to 
droop for thirty-six hours, at the end of which time the effects of the poison 
entirely disappeared; the same animal was long afterwards destroyed by a single 
bite of the Crotalus durissus. Catesby’s observation of this animal is very 
correct: “the bite of this snake is poisonous, but it being small, is not always 
mortal.” 
