46 GLEANINGS FROM NA TUBE. 



The young of the timber rattle-snake are born alive. 

 They are seldom, if ever, more than nine in number, 

 arid average at birth about eight inches in length. Its 

 food, in a state of nature, consists of rabbits, squirrels, 

 mice, and frogs, with an occasional bird, or harmless 

 snake to vary the menu. It usually lies in wait for 

 its prey, and when the latter comes in reach it strikes 

 at it with such rapidity that the motion can scarcely 

 be followed. Unless disturbed it ignores the presence 

 of man or of such animals as it does not wish for food, 

 and never follows such intruders with the intention of 

 attacking them. 



Like the copper-head, the timber rattle-snake was 

 once rather common in southern Indiana, and doubt- 

 less occurred in small numbers in the northern half 

 of the State. At present it is known to occur only in 

 the broken, wooded portions of such counties as 

 Brown, Monroe, and Greene, where there are many 

 ledges of stone, on which, in summer, it can bask for 

 hours in the sunlight, and in whose crevices it can 

 find in winter a suitable abiding place. But here, 

 even, its numbers have become so few that the killing 

 of one is thought to be of sufficient importance for a 

 notice in the local newspaper, usually with a foot or 

 two of length added to the specimen. 



The prairie rattle-snake or massasauga, Sistrurus 

 catenatus (Rafinesque), is, in general, smaller than the 



timber rattle-snake, seldom exceeding 

 The Prairie three feet - n j th The t of the 



lvtlLtIC=SIlciKC. '~ J i i 



head is partially covered with horn- 

 like shields or plates, similar to those of the harmless 

 snakes. Its color is brown or blackish with seven rows 



