1887] The Massasauga and its Habits. 213 
them would probably be equivalent in virulence to a _ whole 
colony of hornets. 
Some twenty-five or thirty years ago this species was exces- 
sively abundant on the then sparsely-settled prairies of Northern 
Illinois; and among the farmers’ boys of that day the slaughter 
of these snakes furnished a means for establishing a reputation 
for courage and enterprise. As more and more of the land came 
under cultivation, these serpents rapidly disappeared; so that, 
where they were once so numerous, they have scarcely been seen 
for perhaps twenty years. The reasons for this rapid extinction 
are, I think, not clear. Men, hogs, deer, and the larger wild fowl 
are regarded as the principal enemies of the Crotalide. Of course 
every. man and boy attacked and killed every rattlesnake that 
was seen; but so likewise they did with every harmless snake; 
and the species of the latter have not usually suffered to the 
same extent as the rattlesnakes. 
The members of the hog family are the foes of the venomous, 
and perhaps also of the non-venomous, serpents; but in the dis- 
tricts to which I refer the production of wheat, oats, and corn 
was at that time so exclusively pursued that but few hogs were 
raised, and these few were kept shut up in close pens, and thus 
prevented from exercising any influence on the reptilian fauna. 
Of their other enemies, the deer were early exterminated, and 
the native large wild birds, which may possibly have been ad- 
dicted to devouring the young snakes, were by the “ murdering 
guns” soon greatly reduced in numbers. That the mere dis- 
turbance of the soil in cultivation would be more prejudicial to 
the welfare of the rattlesnakes than to that of other species of 
serpents we do not know. Possibly, being heavy and clumsy 
animals, they would find it difficult to move about over culti- 
vated fields and pursue there their vocation, and would abandon 
them. In this connection it might be profitable to study the 
influence of similar changes of environment on the Heterodons, ` 
It appears to me quite probable, however, that as the country 
became more thickly settled, the rattlesnakes were deprived to a 
considerable extent of their opportunities for securing food. In 
primitive times the prairies were the breeding-grounds of great 
numbers of prairie-hens (Cupidonia cupido) and other ground- 
nesting birds, whose young and possibly also eggs contributed 
largely to the support of the various species of snakes. The cul- 
