CROTALOPHORUS MILIARIUS. 



27 



Colour. The ground colour of the whole upper surface of the animal is 

 pepper-and-salt grey. The head is more dusky in front, with a light coloured 

 band running transversely from orbit to orbit; from this transverse band begins a 

 yellowish-red or reddish-brown vertebral band, that runs to near the extremity of 

 the tail; this band increases in size to the neck, and has on either side of it, at 

 the occiput, an oblong dark blotch; from the superior orbital plate to the posterior 

 part of the head is a dash of yellowish-white; beneath this, and descending from 

 behind the orbit, is a black vitta, under which is again a yellowish-white line, 

 from the inferior margin of the orbit to behind the angle of the mouth, where it 

 is continuous with a line of similar colour that departs from the lower jaw about 

 its middle. The upper jaw is dusky; the lower is light coloured, with some dark 

 lines that mark the position of the labial plates; the brownish-red vertebral line is 

 interrupted at regular intervals by oblong, oval, or sub-quadrate spots, placed 

 transversely; these spots are frequently emarginate before and behind, and all of 

 them have their margins tipped with yellowish-white. On the flanks is another 

 series of sub-round spots, placed in the same vertical line with the vertebral row, 

 becoming less regular towards the tail. Between the lateral and vertebral rows, 

 and alternating with them, is another series of round spots; these are dusky, and 

 never as strongly marked as the others. These colours are by no means so bright 

 at all times as they are represented in the accompanying plate, which were taken 

 from an animal of great beauty, soon after it had shed its skin. The inferior 

 surface of the tail is flesh colour, dotted with dark grey. 



Dimensions. Length of head, 11 lines; greatest breadth of head, 7-^ hnes; 

 length of body, 13 inches; length of tail, 2 inches without the rattles; these vary 

 in number, generally there are two or three, but I have seen as many as five. In 

 the specimen here described, there were 128 abdominal plates, and 30 sub-caudal. 



Habits. This species of Rattlesnake is very common in the southern states; 

 'it is found in dry places among leaves, and frequently in high grass, in search of 

 small field mice, on which it feeds. 



