188 A NATURE WOOING. 



offended. Those kept in boxes and cages often begin 

 to rattle as soon as they see anybody approaching. 

 They are easy to keep alive, and take food without 

 trouble. I saw one that was kept in a small box and 

 was fed with toads ; it did so well there that it changed 

 its skin twice in a summer. They are often kept in 

 the shops of taxidermists and in 'curiosity stores/ 

 where Northern tourists buy them, paying good 

 prices. The skin is often used for ornaments or for 

 the manufacture of pocketbooks and similar objects. 



"People are very seldom bitten by rattlesnakes in 

 Florida. The rattling, the strong odor, and the slow- 

 ness of the snake are protective. This snake is often 

 caught by placing an empty barrel over the coils, 

 after which a board is shoved under the reptile and 

 the whole thing turned over."* 



Besides the diamond rattlesnake, the small ground 

 rattler, Sistrurus miliarius L., closely allied to the 

 northern massasauga or prairie rattlesnake, occurs 

 throughout Florida. The other poisonous reptiles of 

 the State are the water-moccasin or "cotton-mouth," 

 Ancistrodon piscivorus Lacepede, and the coral or 

 bead snake, Elaps fulvius L., both of which range 

 north to southern Indiana. The former belongs to 

 the same genus as the copperhead of the north. The 

 coral snake is a handsome reptile, being possessed of 

 a slender body which is encircled by alternate bands 

 of jet black and bright red, fourteen to nineteen of 



* Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVII, 1894, p. 335. 



