CROTALIDA. 81 
Length 19/7, tail 23/7; abdominal scuta 140 to 152, subcaudal squame 
31 to 45. Color brown, gray, or reddish olive, with a double dorsal series 
of brown or black spots; those of both sides sometimes confluent with 
cross-bands. Sides and belly marbled and dotted with brown or black; 
upper lip-brown or black, well marked by a darker line running from 
behind the eye to angle of the mouth; a whitish temporal streak above 
the dark line, sometimes continued along the side of the neck with an 
interrupted brown band above and below it. Chin and throat blackish 
or brownish, variegated with yellow or gray. 
CrRoTALus FASsctatus. 
The Banded Rattlesnake, found in the United States of 
Colombia. The varieties which abound in the Northern and 
Northwestern States of America are the most venomous; their 
poison is much more active than those found in tropical 
climates. The former are found of from two to three and 
one-half metres in length. (One was killed near Venice, 
Erie County, Ohio, in 1850, which measured 12 feet 4 inches 
extreme length.) 
It abounds more particularly in Western New York, 
Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and in 
Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, California, and the base of the 
Rocky Mountains, on both the eastern and western slopes. 
Following down the chain of mountains from California, 
through Mexico, Central America, and the Isthmus of Darien 
to the Southwestern Andes, this species still abounds at from 
300 to 1000 or 1500 metres above the level of the sea; from 
Darien to the mouth of the Amazon, and from the plains of 
Casanare to the southern boundary of Brazil. 
Its usual length is 150 centimetres (5 feet nearly). Head ovaloid, or 
triangular, partly covered with small tile-shaped scales. Eyes large in 
proportion to the size of the head; dorsal region of a reddish-brown, 
shaded with yellow sides. Belly of a much lighter shade, which changes 
to a lead-colored white below. Sides and back covered with from 30 to 
