THE DIAMOND RATTLESNAKE. 



103 



The Rattlesnakes are peculiar to America, embraced in the family Crotalidce, the latter 

 term meaning, in the Greek, rattlers, referring to the characteristic habit of some of the 

 species. They have two fangs on the upper jaw, which are grooved, and suited to deliver the 

 liquid poison which lies in a sac at the roots. Eighteen species of Rattlesnakes are now 

 known in North America. 



The Northern Rattlesnake {Crotalus horridus), called also the Banded Rattlesnake, 

 is the more common of the few species of this dreaded family of reptiles. It is illustrated 

 together with the Crotalus adamanteus, another American Rattlesnake. The Banded Rattle- 

 snake is found in rocky places on dry soil, reaching in its range as far north as the middle of 

 New England and New York State, west as far as the Rocky Moimtains, and south to the 

 Gulf States. Along the shores of Lake Champlain it is parti(!ularly abundant. Dr. DeKay, 

 the eminent zoologist of the State of New Yoi'k, gives the following from a local newspaper 

 of the day : — 



" Two men in three days killed eleven hundred and four Rattlesnakes on Tongue Moun- 

 tain, in the tov\Ti of Bolton, New York." 



'^nsw.. 







i Jil tui tc 



THE DIAMOND AND THE NORTHERN RATTLESNAKE. — (?ra<(rf!« adamanteiix and Crotalus horriaus. (One-tenth natural size.) 



Tlie popular belief that a rattle is added yearly is not correct. Dr. Holbrook, the author 

 on American Reptiles, says he has known one to add two rattles in a year, and Dr. Bachman 

 observed four added in the same period. Mr. Peale, of the Museum in Philadelphia, kept a 

 Rattlesnake fourteen years. It had, when first confined, eleven rattles. Several were lost 

 annually, and new ones took their place. At its death there Avere but eleven rattles, though 

 It had increased in length four inches. Holbrook saw one having twenty-one rattles. Accounts 

 are occasionally given of a more numerous series. We have an example of one bearing 

 twenty-four ratkes. This is probably about the limit. The pretended powers of "charming" 

 are not credited by naturalists. 



The Diamond Rattlesnake is strictly a Southern species, being confined to the sea- 

 board below the Carolinas. Its habits differ, in so far that this one inhabits damp, shady 

 places ; hence the local name. Water Rattle. In si^e it exceeds the Banded species, some 



