OBSERVATIONS ON THE MENTAL CAPACITY 

 AND HABITS OF POISONOUS SERPENTS. 



By RAYMOND L. DITMARS, 



CURATOR OF REPTILES. 



THE Reptile House of tlie Xew York Zoological Park serves 

 two important purposes. The first, and best known, is 

 the maintenance of a thoroughly representative collection of rep- 

 tiles and batrachians for public exhibition, descriptively labeled, 

 and provided with maps and charts illustrating classification and 

 distribution. Its second purpose is to afford opportunities to 

 observe, from a sympathetic standpoint, the habits of groups, 

 genera and species of particular interest, and to record in print 

 such observations as tend to increase our knowledge of the rep- 

 tilian world. That line of work began very shortly after the 

 opening of the Park.* 



To accurately describe the habits of reptiles, great care and a 

 thoroughly sympathetic interest are necessary. The actions of a 

 single captive specimen are apt to be very misleading. If accepted 

 as illustrating the habits generally of the various species of a 

 genus, or even the habit of the single species it represents, the 

 resulting description would be possibly interesting as popular read- 



*Thc following articles by the Curator of Reptiles have appeared in publica- 

 tions of the Xew York Zocjlogical Society : Turtles, Terrapins and Tortoises. — 

 Bulletin No. 4. Noteworthy New Reptiles. — Bulletin No. 7. Poisonous Ser- 

 pents of the New World.— Bulletin No. 11. Poisonous Serpents of the Old 

 World. — Bulletin No. 12. The Big Serpents. — Bulletin No. 14. The Giant 

 Tortoises. — Sixth .Annual Report. Observations on the Development of Reptiles, 

 with Notes on Feeding Reptiles in Captivity.— Seventh .Annual Report. Ob- 

 servations on Lacertilians. — Eighth .Annual Report. 



