TIIK DIAMOND RATTLSSNAfS. 



101 



The Rattlesnakes are peculiar to America, embraced in tin- family Crotalidtr, the latter 

 meaning, in the Greek, rattlers, referring to the characteristic habit of some of the 

 >1- < i-8. Th-\ have two f:in^ <>n th.- iipjMT jaw, which are grooved, and uuited to deliver the 

 li.jui.l j.i-. v ii ulii.-h lien in a aac at the roots. Eighteen specie* of Rattlesnakes are now 

 known in North America. 



'I'm V-iiini i:-> i; MI M -N M. ! ONMM |sn (''/,/., . .".n.-.laKoih,. P.AM.HI KM-IM -NAKI. 

 is tin- more common of the few species of this dreaded family of reptiles. It is illustrated 

 together with the Crotaltit adamatUittu, another American Rattlesnake. The Banded Rattle- 

 tinake is found in rocky places on dry soil, reaching in its range as far north as the middle of 

 New England and New York State, west as far as the Rocky Mountains, and south to the 

 Gulf States. Along the shores of Lake Champlain it is particularly abundant. Dr. DeKuy, 

 the eminent zoologist of the State of New York, gives the following from a local newspaper 

 of the day : 



"Two men in three days killed eleven hundred and four Rattlesnakes on Tongue Moun- 

 tain, in the town of Bolton, New York." 





DIAMOND AND TIIK NuKTIIKKN BATTUBNAKS.-O 



The popular belief that a rattle is added yearly is not correct. Dr. Holbrook, the author 

 on American Reptiles, says he has known one to add two rattles in a year, and Dr. Bach man 

 observed four added in the same period. Mr. Peale, of the Museum in Philadelphia, kept a 

 11 1 ttlesnake fourteen years. It had. when first confined, eleven rattles. Several were 1 - 

 annually, and new ones took th>-ir place. At its death there were but eleven rattles, though 

 it had increased in length four inches. Holbrook saw one having twenty -one rattles. Accounts 

 are occasionally given of a more numerous series. We have an example of one bearing 

 tu.-niy f,.ur mules. This is probably about the limit The pretended powers of "charming" 

 are not credited by naturalists. 



THE DIAMOICD RATTLESNAKE is strictly a Southern species, being confined to the 

 board below the Carolina*. Its habits differ, in so far that this one inhabits damp, shady 

 places ; hence the local name, Water Rattle. In size it exceeds the Banded spades, some 



