2 4 



inch is of a bright sulphur yellow. The parent snakes 

 measured about two and a half feet each and the young 

 ten inches. 



Crotalus Linn. 

 Head with small scales between the superciliaries and 

 posteriorly ; a few small plates anteriorly. Body stout ; 

 tail ending in a rattle. Urosteges entire. 



Crotalus horridus Linn. 

 Banded Rattlesnake. 



Head very distinct ; superciliaries large ; two anterior 

 and five or six posterior frontals. Supralabials twelve or 

 more, separated from the orbit by two rows of scales as 

 well as orbital plates, which are numerous. General color 

 above, dark sulphur-yellow, with a series of irregular black 

 transverse bands, which are, in many individuals, broken 

 into a series of dorsal subrhomboids and smaller blotches 

 laterally. Along the median part of the back runs an in- 

 distinct line of reddish-brown, for the width of about three 

 scales. Tail black. Under side, bright yellow, profusely 

 sprinkled with black spots. Average length, three feet. 



This species varies considerably in the ground color as 

 well as pattern. Some specimens are almost entirely black 

 above, the pattern being scarcely visible, while others are 

 sulphur-yellow with black bands, with or without the ver- 

 tebral stripe. A good example of the variation of pattern 

 is shown in two specimens from Connecticut. One has the 

 bands running from side to side unbroken, with the median 

 dorsal stripe present; the other has the bands broken, form- 

 ing a subrhomboidal dorsal pattern with a smaller round 

 blotch on the side beneath each subrhomboid, and the 

 dorsal stripe is absent. 



The Rattlesnake is becoming very rare within fifty miles 

 of this city, the nearest locality in which it has been found 

 in the last few years being Putnam County, New York, 

 near the Hudson River; it also occurs in Connecticut, and 

 Professor E. B. Southwick tells me that a few are found 

 annually in the central part of Long Island. 



