The Rattlesnakes 



pattern of the Western diamond rattlesnake. This similarity 

 is heightened by the tail; this is white with black rings. There 

 is a yellowish band from in front of the eye to the angle of the 

 mouth. 



On most specimens the markings are very obscure, but the 

 writer received one specimen from, San Diego County, California, 

 so strongly marked that it was momentarily mistaken for a spec- 

 imen of the Crotalus atrox the Western diamond rattlesnake. 



A bright red specimen has been taken in Canyon Prieto, 

 not far from Fort Whipple, Arizona. This was given the name 

 pyrrba, by Prof. Cope. As no other specimens have been taken 

 since its capture (1866) it can hardly be considered anything but 

 an individual variation in colour. 



Dimensions. The length of a mature specimen seems to be 

 about three and a half feet. The conformation of the head and 

 body is like the Western diamond rattlesnake. 



Distribution. Desert mountains, though not at a great 

 altitude, of Lower California, southern California, southern 

 Arizona and extreme northwestern Mexico. 



Mr. Herbert Brown has given the writer the following note 

 about the species: 



"In the Tinajas Altas Range, a small, detached mountain, 

 about 70 miles southwest of here (Yuma), there is a white Rattle- 

 snake. I submitted a specimen to Dr. Van Denburgh, of San 

 Francisco, California. He says it is Crotalus mitcbellii. They 

 are slightly marked with dark across the middle of the back, but 

 otherwise the white or gray is solid. Dr. W. J. McGee to whom 

 I am indebted for the specimen, killed two of them while in the 

 range. He said that when coiled they looked like bunches of 

 white cotton. I believe I have seen them in the Death Valley 

 country." 



Habits. But one living example has been observed by the 

 writer. It was a nervous snake, and kept its pale, straw-coloured 

 rattle always ready to be shaken upon the slightest disturbance. 

 It steadily refused food and lived but a few months. Observations 

 upon a single specimen of a creature so far removed from its 

 environment are of but little value. To describe such a snake 

 as stupid would be but to theorise over the actions of a wild brute 

 suddenly removed from everything natural, stunned and grieving 

 from the change. What we frequently regard as "stupidity" 



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