22 [Senate 



GENUS CROTALOPHORUS (Gkay). 



Crotalophorus tergeminus, Triple-spotted Rattlesnake. - - p. 57 



SYNONYMS. 

 Cfotalus tergeminus (Say), Long's Exped. Rock. Mountains, Vol. i, p. 499. 

 Crotalus tergeminus (Haelan), Med. and Phys. Sesearehes, p. 136. 

 Crotalophorus tergeminus (Holbrook), N.Am. Herpetology, Vol. iii, pag. 29, pi. 5. 



Characters. Head large, triangular, rounded in front, covered anteriorly 

 and on the vertex with plates, and posteriorly with scales; a deep pit be- 

 tween the eye and nostril; upper jaw with poisonous fangs; body above 

 cinereous, with a triple series of dark brown spots; beneath, a double 

 series of dusky spots. PL 150; Caud. PL 16; Bifid PL 6. Holbrook.- 



This Rattlesnake was first described by Mr. Say in Long's Expedition to the 

 Rocky Mountains during the years 1819 - 20. Mr. Say observes that they 

 inhabit the region of country bordering on the Rocky Mountains, near the 

 sources of the Missouri, and seem to prefer an unproductive soil where theif 

 sluggish gait may not meet with the opposing obstacles of grass and mud; and 

 for their hiding places, they seek the holes of the prairie dog (^Arctomys lu- 

 doviciana). 



The specimen in the State Cabinet was presented by the Hon. Levi Fisk of 

 the town of Byron, Genesee county, N. Y. Their habitat ia a white cedar 

 swamp in said town, containing an area of about one thousand acres. During 

 the summer season, they leave the swamp, and go into the adjoining fields of 

 grain, where they remain until fall, when they return to the swamp and hiber- 

 nate. They have not been observed at any other locality in this State. The 

 entire length of the specimen is two feet : it has 139 abdominal plates, and 23 

 entire and 3 bifid under the tail, upon which there are only three rattles re- 

 maining, several appearing to have been broken off. Mr. Fisk states that one 

 was kiUed last summer that had fourteen rattles, and was a little over two feet 

 in length; which may be considered as the maximum size of the species. 



Dr. De Kay, in his Zoology of the State, places the tergeminus among the 

 extra-limital. The undoubted occurrence of this rattlesnake in the town of 

 Byron, authorises us to add another species to our catalogue of New-York 

 Reptiles. 



