106 SERPENTS 



Originally the home of this species embraced the entire 

 territory from the Atlantic coast to western Iowa, Kansas, 

 and into Texas. In many portions of this region it still exists 

 in small numbers, and is said to be "fairly common in the 

 Allegheny Mountains," from Pennsylvania southward. 



The Horned Rattlesnake, or Side-Winder,^ of the Far 

 Southwest is a creature of the deserts, and the oddest member 

 of this group. It has a small horn over each eye, and in 

 crawling it moves sidewise, in very deep curves, totally dif- 

 ferent from the straightforward course of most rattlesnakes 

 when on the war-path. This is the smallest of our rattlers. 

 Its general color is yellowish gray, marked by small round 

 spots, and its home is in southern Arizona, California, Ne- 

 vada and probably Sonora, Mexico. 



The Bushmaster,^ a viper which is also known as the 

 Mapepire and Sirocucu, is the reptilian terror of the land 

 that it inhabits — tropical South America, extending north- 

 ward into Central America. It is the largest, the most showy, 

 and apparently the most deadly of the poisonous serpents of 

 the western hemisphere. Its maximum length is said to be 12 

 feet, but it is rather slender, and lacks the gross thickness of 

 the cotton-mouth moccasin and the diamond rattler of our 

 Gulf coast. Its colors are so striking as to render this ser- 

 pent easily recognizable. Its pinkish-yellow ground-color is 

 ornamented on the upper surface with large, open diamonds 

 of black or dark brown that form a continuous chain from 

 neck to tail. The tail is really black, marked by narrow 

 bands of the light ground-color. The scales of this snake 



' Cro'ta-lus ce-ras'tes. ^ La-che'sis mu'tus. 



