RATTLESNAKES 



103 



hole, and lay on the bottom completely exposed. This spe- 

 cies is very wise in sheltering in the burrows of the prairie- 

 "dog," but where none of those are to be found, the wash- 

 ovit holes in cut banks can always be relied upon to furnish 

 warm shelter for Rattler, bob-cat or wolf. 



The Diamond Rattlesnake^ is a royal serpent, the lar- 

 gest of the rattlers, and the handsomest snake in North Amer- 

 ica. A specimen G feet 

 long, in good condi- 

 tion, will be accepted 

 anywhere as a large 

 one, but the largest 

 specimens far exceed 

 that size. At Oak 

 Lodge, Florida, in the 

 possession of Mrs. C. 

 F. Latham, I saw the skin of the largest individual ever 

 known to me. The wearer measured, before it was skinned, 

 8 feet 5 inches, and its girth at the thickest part of its body 

 was 1 foot 3 inches. 



This brown-and-gold species is most at home in Florida, 

 on clean sand, among the cabbage-palmettos, saw-palmettos, 

 and long-leafed pines. Although it rarely takes to water, it 

 is sometimes called the Water Rattler. It ranges north- 

 ward into the Carohnas, westward through the Gulf states 

 to the Mississippi River, and probably beyond. In Texas 

 begins the home of the big Texas Rattlesnake,^ of the 

 same size and appearance as the Diamond, color pattern and 



1 Cro'ta-lus ad-a-man'te-us. ^ Cro'ta-lus a'trox. 



PRAIRIE RATTLESNAKE. 



