317 



CROTALUS. RATTLE-SNAKE. 



Generic Character. 



Scuta abdominalia. 



Scuta Squamaque subcaudales 



tail. 



Crepitacu/umtermmde caudse. 



Scuta on the abdomen. 

 Scuta and Squama beneath th* 



Rattle terminating the tail. 



BANDED RATTLE-SNAKE. 



Crotalus Horridus. C.fusco-fiavesctnsjascns tranwnis nigri- 



cantibus. , , 



Yellowish-brown Rattle-Snake, with blackish transverse bar 

 Crotalus horridus. Lin. Syst. Nat. p. 372. 

 Vipera caudisona Americana. Catesb. Car. 2. t. 41. 

 Abdominal scuta l67, subcaudal 23. 



rr* 



THE genus Crotalus, or Rattle-Snake, affords 

 the most signal examples of the powerfully de- 

 structive poison with which some of the serpent 

 tribe are furnished ; instances having frequently 

 occurred in which the bite of these snakes has 

 proved fatal to mankind in the space even of a 

 very few minutes. 



Till the discovery of the Western Hemisphere 

 the knowledge of these serpents was concealed 

 from the rest of the world, and philosophers then 

 first beheld with amazement a reptile of the most 



