122 E.E.Brown 



and a 600 mm TL specimen contained a shrew, Cryptotis parva. The in- 

 testine of a 380 mm TL specimen contained mammal fur and smooth 

 snake scales. 



Crotalus homdus, Timber Rattlesnake. 



Three specimens from Alleghany and Buncombe counties, North 

 Carolina, had eaten four mammals: 2 Microtus pennsylvamcus, 1 Tamias 

 striatus and 1 Ochrotomys nuttalli. 



Two young snakes, of what may or may not be recognized as the sub- 

 species C. h. atricaudatus, contained a young Peromyscus sp. and a Microtus 

 pennsylvamcus. A larger snake, 140 cm TL, had eaten a Sciurus carolinensis . 

 These last snakes were from Brunswick and Burke cos., NC, and Ches- 

 terfield Co., SC. 



DISCUSSION 



Neill and Allen (1956) commented rather vigorously and dogmatically 

 concerning "secondarily ingested food items" in snake stomachs. Their 

 warning was valid, but their paper, which considerably overstated the 

 case, is still being quoted uncritically. It is evident that some early 

 workers, e.g. Surface (1906), made no effort to distinguish between 

 primary, and possible secondary, items. No doubt there have been oc- 

 casional oversights and misinterpretations since those times. However, to 

 imply that a copperhead or black racer (among others) may not take 

 arthropods at times seems extremely questionable, if not actually absurd. 

 Savage (1967) recorded 29 cicadas in 42 copperheads from the Great 

 Smokies region, and his study apparently did not include a season of 

 periodical cicada emergence. The finding of centipedes in southern 

 Sistrurus by Hamilton and Pollack (1955) probably should have suggested 

 to the rest of us that we know too little about that snake. Although it in- 

 volves a totally different small viper, a figure in Copeia (1967, p. 224) is 

 thought provoking in this connection. 



Heavier skeletal parts of some beetles are, of course, highly resistant to 

 digestion by snakes. However, softer materials (e.g. moths; caterpillars; 

 cicada nymphs; abdominal regions of spiders and of mantids and other 

 orthoptera; small centipedes) appear to pose no appreciable problem. 



Neill and Allen (1956) also referred to lengthy retention of indigestible 

 food residue in the colon of such large snakes as Python and Eunectes. I may 

 not be qualified to comment on this, since my chief experience has been 

 with small, eastern forms, especially Nerodia. However, as I showed in a 

 later paper on water snake food (Brown 1958), such retention occurs 

 when a snake is without food for an extended period. A meal, or 

 sometimes even a massive drink of water, may stimulate it to pass such 



