1883. ] The Copperhead. - 1235 
was followed by an Axcistrodon contortrix, which, on reaching the 
terrace, was almost ready to pounce upon his intended victim. 
It was but the work of a moment for one of the astounded ob- 
servers to draw the ramrod from a gun, with which he killed the 
serpent, giving the batrachian a chance to escape. 
It was a remarkably fine specimen of a serpent, measuring, I 
believe, thirty-two or thirty-three inches in length, and but little 
lacerated by the blow from the ramrod. I afterward presented it 
to the Museum of Natural History of this city (New York). The 
markings of this reptile were well defined, and the blotches of a 
good chestnut color throughout. The ground color was rather 
of a light grayish-brown, aad far from yellow. 
Several other specimens of living A. contortrix, which I have 
seen on exhibition in different places of this city, were all free 
from that yellow color which distinguished the ophidian I met so 
unpleasantly close at Matawan, N. J. 
It is stated in “ Ophidians,” by Dr. S. B. Higgins, that the cop- 
perhead invariably bites low, in contradistinction to the Crotalus, 
inflicting a wound in the region of the ankle joint both in man and 
animals. If this be so, then the act of coiling previous to striking 
at a foe could be dispensed with. In Higgins’ work, which princi- 
pally treats of the poisons and their galls as antidotes against the 
bites of all venomous ophidians, the copperhead is designated as 
Ancistrodon contortrix B. &. G. 
As I find so little published in scientific literature about the 
habits of the copperhead, I must have recourse to some accounts 
clipped from newspapers. They illustrate one point in question, and 
which relates to the part wounded when human beings have been 
the victims. Another fact learned from the same source refers to 
the number of young of the copperhead, which compares quite 
favorably with statements regarding other serpents made in the 
volumes of the AMERICAN NATURALIST, by various informants. 
From the New York Sun (Aug. 2g, 1880).—In Reading, Pa., a 
Copperhead snake, thirty-seven inches long, was found to contain 
cighty-eight young snakes, all alive, and four to six inches in 
length, when it was killed by James F. Hinkle. 
From the New York Sun (Oct. 24, 1880).—Lewis C. wile af 
Washingtonborough, Pa., killed a large copperhead snake which, 
When Opened, was found to contain sixty young ones. 
From the Oil City Derrick—New York Sun (July 13, 1879)— 
fe ednesday evening a little boy named Mishler, whose parents 
