SNAKES, 43 



The copper-head frequents for the most part rocky 

 hillsides, especially those covered with timber and 

 in the vicinity 

 of water. Its 

 young are horn 

 alive, and are 

 few, seven to 



nine in HUm- Fig. 10 Head of Copper-head, shown from top and 



side. (After Baird.) 



her. In the 



early settlement of Indiana it was common in the 

 southern half of the State, hut at present one hears 

 only of an occasional specimen ; the most of those 

 which are reputed as copper-heads, being found, upon 

 examination, to be examples of some harmless species. 

 The banded or timber rattle-snake, Crotalus homdus 

 L., reaches a length of six feet,* and a diameter of 

 several inches. From the prairie rattle-snake it may 

 be readily known by its having the top 

 of the head covered with numerous 

 Rattle-snake sca ^ es instead of bony plates. In color 

 it is yellowish brown with three rows 

 of dark blotches, about twenty-one in each row, along 

 the back between the head and the tail, the latter, in 

 full grown specimens, being entirely black. 



The rattle of this and allied species is composed of 

 a series of flattened, horny rings joined rather loosely 

 together, the terminal one, called "the button," being 

 narrower than the others. The common belief that 

 the- age of the snake can be told by the number of 



*A specimen in the State Museum from Arkansas measures six feet four 

 inches, and its rattle is composed of thirteen rings and a button. Another 

 from Clay County, Indiana, is five feet four inches in length and possesses 

 eighteen rings and a button. 



