16. CROTALIDJE 



against the time when the close settlement of our land 

 accomplishes the extinction of many of our wild things. 



"A thing we cannot help mentioning here, is the popular 

 exaggeration as to the size of snakes. We have heard 

 thoroughly honest people tell about rattlesnakes five and six 

 feet long and "as big around as a man's leg." In all our 

 experience the largest measurement we have obtained from 

 fresh specimens was 42 inches 5 in this instance the girth was 

 just four inches, which is rather less than in some shorter 

 examples we have seen. We refer here to the Crotalus luci- 

 fer of the Pacific Slope of Los Angeles and San Bernardino 

 Counties. Doubtless the desert and San Diego County rat- 

 tlers, which are of different species, do attain greater length. 

 But snakes look bigger to most people than they really are! 

 Then too, some people base their statements on the measure- 

 ments of skins. Now a three foot rattler will produce a 

 skin, when stretched and tanned, four and one-half feet 

 long! We do not doubt that four- footers of our species do 

 exist though we haven't found that size yet ourselves. But 

 we want the chance to apply the yard stick to larger ones, 

 for our own satisfaction." 



"During all three summers we found rattlers actually 

 abundant along the upper Santa Ana between Seven Oaks 

 and Big Meadows (5,000 to 6,800 feet altitude); also in 

 the lower Fish creek canon (6,500 to 7,000 feet), and on 

 the south face of Sugarloaf up to 6,800 feet. We ran across 

 fully thirty individuals in that neighborhood in the summer 

 of 1906. Most of these were on the caiion bottom near the 

 willow or rose thickets, though some were along the trail 

 that wound through the sage, in places a hundred yards or 

 more from the stream. The line of cienagas running up 

 the south base of Sugarloaf appeared to be a favorite resort 

 for rattlesnakes, doubtless due to the abundance of gophers 

 and meadow mice there. 



