RATTLESNAKES 



109 



rise from the body in such a manner that its surface is quite 

 rough. 



In Demerara the native hunters told me of this serpent 

 with bated breath; and no wonder. Its bite is so deadly that 

 a man bitten in the thigh died in 8 minutes ! (R. L. Ditmars.) 



About eight or ten specimens of this fearsome serpent have 

 reached the Zoological 

 Park, usually from 

 the island of Trini- 

 dad, not one of which 

 ever consented to 

 take food. A captive 

 Bushmaster sinaply 

 refuses food until it 

 dies, which usually 

 occurs in three or four 

 months. From this serpent the poison is extracted and used 

 in the preparation of a homeopathic remedy in the ratio of 

 about one in one million. 



The Massasauga^ is the type of a genus of rattlesnakes 

 containing only three species, distinguished by various an- 

 atomical characters, but from neck to tail well marked, for 

 the general student, by a succession of very dark-brown sad- 

 dle-bag patches of color laid upon lighter brown. The joints 

 of the rattles never exceed ten in number. This species is 

 found at long intervals from the swamps of western New York 

 to Nebraska, but it is so rare that living specimens are diffi- 

 cult to obtain. 



MASSASAUGA. 



■ Sis-tni'rus cat-e-na'tus. 



