386 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



a 



Occurs in swamps and low grounds in Orange and Dutchess. 



counties, but scarcer in the Highlands." Eckel. 1901, p. 154 

 " Very common in Rockland county." Wallace. 1901 

 The milk snake (p. 374) ; the water snake (p. 377) and the blowing 



adder (p. 368) are frequently confounded with this species, though 



bearing only a very superficial resemblance to it. 



22 Sistrurus catenatus catenatus (Rafinesque) 



Massasauga 

 Gebhard. '53, p. 22. Crotalophorus tergeminus 

 Jordan. Sistrurus catenatus 



Tail with a rattle. Head with nine symmetric plates in front ; 

 covered with scales behind. Scales in 25 rows. Urosteges undivided,, 

 except the last three to five, which are bifid. 



Fig. 23 Sistrurus catenatus catenatus 



Ground color above, brown ; blotches deep brown to blackish, 

 with yellowish white margin ; color beneath, blackish brown, inter- 

 mingled with yellowish. Length 24-30 inches. 



The rattles of this species are much smaller than those of a banded 

 rattlesnake of equal length ; and their sound is correspondingly 

 feeble. 



Described by De Kay ('42, p. 57) as extralimital, this species 

 was added to the 'New York faunal list by Gebhard ('53, p. 22), 

 a specimen having been sent in by the Hon. Levi Fish, from the 

 town of Byron, Genesee co. Gebhard states further that in this 

 town " their habitat is a white cedar swamp, containing an area of 

 about one thousand acres. During the summer season, they leave 

 the swamp, and go into the adjoining fields of grain, where they 

 remain until fall, when they return to the swamp and hibernate." 

 No later record exists of their occurrence in New York state ; and 



