347 



In color, it is brownish or reddish, with about 28 dark dorsal blotches, 

 besides lateral ones and half-rings on the tail ; sometimes the color is 

 nearly uniform black. Vertical plate longer than broad, about equal to the 

 occipitals ; ventral plates 120 to 150 ; scales in 23 or 25 rows. Maximum 

 length about 2 feet. 



10. Sistrurus catenatus (Rafinesque). 

 Prairie Rattlesnake. 



This species, known also as the Massasauga, is likely to occur in all 

 prairie regions from Ohio to Minnesota and southward. In Indiana it is 

 known only from the northern portions of the State. It is the only poison- 

 ous snake occurring about Lake Maxinkuckee. All the other species found 

 in that region or elsewhere in northern Indiana are entirely harmless. 

 Formerly the Massasauga was abundant throughout this part of the State, 

 but with the settling up of the country and the draining of the prairie 

 grass-land and the marshes, it has become wholly exterminated in many 

 places and practically so in many others. About Maxinkuckee, however, 

 and elsewhere in Marshall County, it is far from extinct. It is apt to be 

 found in any and all suitable places such as prairie meadows, about the 

 borders of vanishing lakes, and in prairie marsh-ground anywhere. 



In May, 1891, when the spring meeting of the Indiana Academy of 

 Science was being held at Lake Maxinkuckee, several specimens were 

 caught by members in attendance, chiefly in marshy ground about the lake. 

 About 1896 a young man on the eastern side of the lake was bitten on the 

 leg by one. The leg remained swollen for some time and complete recovery 

 was very slow. On August 6, 1899, one was caught on Long Point between 

 the Scovell and Walter Knapp cottages. It was 23 inches long and had five 

 rattles. On August 3, 1900, one was killed two and one-fourth miles south 

 of Arlington station. It was 18 inches long and had two rattles and a but- 

 ton. Several weeks earlier, near the same place, a dog was bitten by one, 

 without fatal results. On August 26 a small one was killed on the east 

 side of the lake near the T. W. Wilson cottage. On the same day one was 

 killed in a field on the Hawk farm south of Culver. It was about 2 feet 

 long and had nine rattles. Another young individual was killed Septem- 

 ber 3 on the east side, two and one-half miles southeast of the Maxwell 

 cottage, and one with nine rattles was killed September 26, 1907, in a 

 meadow on the Newman farm, four miles southeast of Culver. 



These are all the records we have of the occurrence of the prairie 



