REPORT OP THE DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1902 rl45 



Rattlesnakes occasionally stray westward over the higher hill 

 country, and the writer has twice seen rattlers on Eagles' Nest 

 hill, South mountain, over Nyack. On one occasion I was walk- 

 ing on the hill and sat down on a rock to sketch. Suddenly I 

 heard what I took to be an early locust or cicada (it was in 

 July) ; but the sound was less musical and seemed unfamiliar. 

 On investigation a small snake was discovered thrashing about 

 and occasionally coiling up. My attempt to catch the snake 

 failed, and it quickly disappeared beneath the very rock which I 

 had been using as a seat. There can be no doubt as to the identifi- 

 cation, as no other snake has a rattle, or could make such a noise 

 as that on a bare rocky surface. 



I had further and more direct proof later when, one morning, 

 I came across another rattler, larger than the first, lying on a 

 boulder by the Balance Rock road. He tried to get across the 

 road, but was headed off. Then he alternately coiled and sprang 

 his rattle and chased about me, in a circle, till he finally escaped, 

 as the other had, beneath a round, granite rock that stood by the 

 roadside. 



Mr Edwin C. Eckel, in his " Snakes of New York State," [Am. 

 Nat. 35 : 155 J says : 



Crotalus horridus still occurs in Orange and Rockland coun- 

 ties, but is very rare and possibly extinct east of the Hudson. 

 Cope mentions a specimen collected in 1878 from Katonah, West- 

 chester co. ; and I have been informed that one was killed in 1887 

 near White Plains. 1 



With this somewhat rare snake T come to the end of the known 

 species of Ophidia occurring in Rockland county, N. Y. There 

 are in all 1G species and varieties, divided among 14 genera. I 

 regret that I have not a collection of snakes to back up my list ; 

 but my notes and observations, together with the fact, mentioned 

 before, of having handled specimens of nearly every species, I 

 have thought sufficient for the purposes of the present paper. 



1 Mr W. H. Davis reports the capture of one at Garrison-on-Hudson in the 

 summer of 1902. Ed. 



