13 



Genus ANCISTRODON, Beauv. 



Gen. Guar. A deep pit between nostril and tlie eye. Nine plates on top 

 of head. AVithout rattle. Poison fangs as in Crotalus. One pair of 

 occipitals. A loral between the nasal and anterior orbitals. Labials 

 excluded from the orbit 1»^he presence of suborbital plates. Scales 

 carinated : rows 23 in nuii^r. Subcaudal scutellag divided posteriorly. 

 Sometimes a small plate between the vertical and postfrontals. Habits 

 terrestrial. 



Syn. Agkisfrodon, Pal. de Beauv. Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. Philad. 

 1799, 381. 



3. Ancistrodon contortrix, B. & G. — Copperhead. 



Spec. Char. Loral present. Labials not entering into the orbit. Dorsal rows of 

 scales 23. Color light chestnut, with inverted Y-shaped darker blotches on the 

 sides. Labials yellowish white. 150, 40+10, 23, 271, H (Ohio). 



SYNONYMS. 



Boa contortrix, Linn. Syst. Nat. I. 273. — Gm. L. Sj'st. Nat. ed. xiii. I. iii. 1788, 



1082. 

 Agkistrodon mokason, Beauv. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. Philad. IV. 1799, 380. 

 Scytalus cvpreus, Rafin. Amer. Journ. Sci. I. 85. — Harl. Med. and Phys. Res. 



1835, 130. 

 Trigonocephalus centhris, Schl. Ess. Phys. Serp. Part descr. 1837, 553. PL xx. 



fig. 10 and 11. 

 Trigonocephalus contortrix, Holbr. N. Amer. Hei'p. II. 1838, 69, pi. xiv.; and 



2d ed. III. 1812, 39, pi. viii.— Dekat, N.Y. Fauna, III. 1842, 53, pi. ix. f. 18. 

 Agkistrodon cont rtrix, B. & G. Catal. N. Am. Serpents (1853), 17. 



The copperhead snake is a vicious species, and its bite is equally to be 

 dreaded with that of the large rattlesnakes. The remedies for its bite are the 

 same. It rarely, however, attains the dimensions of the Crotalus durissus, 

 the largest specimen we have ever seen not exceeding three feet. Fortunately 

 it is at the present day comparatively rare throughout the United States ; 

 being, indeed, almost entirely exterminated in many localities where once 

 abundant. Its range is much the same as that of the northern rattlesnake, 

 and it is even found in Central Texas, where I have never known the Cro- 

 talus durissus to occur. It is abundant in Missouri and Louisiana. Like the 

 rattlesnakes, and some other genera, the copperhead is ovo-viviparous. 



